


Raising a Sister

by TheNinjaGirl93



Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Animated (2007)
Genre: Bonds, F/M, Fluff, M/M, Merging, Siblings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-28
Updated: 2019-11-12
Packaged: 2020-07-23 15:01:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 21
Words: 59,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20010238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheNinjaGirl93/pseuds/TheNinjaGirl93
Summary: When Sentinel brings the Earth bound bots a surprise, all pit breaks loose.Originally on Fanfiction.net





	1. Chapter 1

I got up just as the sun peeked over the horizon, like every morning. Some of the birds that where in my tree chirped their morning song as I laid there and watched a few play and fly way. Without warning a loud knock come from my door, starling all the birds out of the tree. Now who the frag could that be? No one was up at this time but me.  
Before I could even reached the door, Bumblebee came running in looking frantic.  
"Prowl!" He cried and grabbed my arm. "Come quick, Sentinel is on the vid screen! He says a bot is being brought here, to us!"  
"And you thought this would interest me why?" I groaned as I let him pull me out to the hall. "Bots come and go all the time, Bumblebee."  
"But this time Sentinel said he's bringing her here personally!" He cried even more franticly as we got to the main living quarters.  
Why would he do that? Sentinel doesn't care much for others so why is he…  
"Prowl, you know what's going on?" Optimus asked before I could ask myself.  
"How should I know?" I sighed, crossing my arms.  
"Well whatever it is it can't be good." He gave me a look that was fearful and confused.  
Walking further into the room I over heard Sari talking to Bulkhead.  
"You really think it's a girl?" Sari whispered.  
"Well sure why not!" Bulkhead cried cheerfully. "Maybe she's another ninja bot like you Prowl!"  
"Or maybe she's old and weird like Ratchet!" Bumblebee laughed.  
I rolled my optics and sat on the back of the concert couch.  
"Well could she be a ninja?" Sari asked with a smile on her face.  
"No, impossible. Only mechs so far have been ninjas." I said contemplating the idea. "Unless…no I would have heard about it. How do you know it's a femmie?"  
"Jazz said 'she was special' so we think he was telling us the truth." Sari said.  
Bumblebee was about to say something but a sonic boom interrupted him. We all ran outside to find the Elite Guard ship had entered the Earth's atmosphere.  
"Alright let's go. Transform and roll out!" Optimus cried as we transformed and headed off.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------  
We got to the ship just as the ramp come in contact with the ground. The doors opened to reveal Sentinel as he stepped out, Jazz in tow, with a sour look on his face.  
"Well you're quick to respond." Sentinel spat. He was so pleasant to work with...  
"Well you sounded urgent." Optimus said stepping forward a little. "So where is the femmie? And why is she so special?"  
"Right, JETFIRE, JETSTORM, BRING HER OUT!" Sentinel yelled towards the door. Unfortunately for us, we were too close when he yelled, and all of us flinched at his harsh tone.  
My audio receptors where ringing so badly I almost didn't hear Jazz say my name. He gestured for me to come closer. I complied and walked up next to him.  
"Prowl," He said as the twins came out with a form walking in-between them. "This is Starlit, your sister."  
When she came down to where I could finally see her, she looked like… no, that's not possible. They had to have made some kind of mistake. But she looked so much like her, only smaller. She looked like my creator but i thought that she didn't have any more after me, couldn't have any more after me is more accurate. Primus she did though. Only her colors where off, Creator was yellow and white with violet accents, Starlit was a aqua and white with violet accents. And was I seeing things…no her optics are, they're green. How rare...  
"Prowl, you ok man?" Jazz said taking my hand. I nodded but continued to stare at the young femmie. "Pretty ain't she? Reminds me of whose she's related too."  
I pushed him away not wanting the others to see. No one else had yet to catch on to our relationship, and I didn't want anyone to find out now.  
"Jazz, how old is she?" I asked as Jetfire and his twin stood beside Sentinel with Starlit in-between.  
"A hundred and fourteen at the least. Maybe alittle older or younger." He said nuzzling my audio. "Why?"  
"She's a little young to be my sister." I said back, turning towards my love. He smiled and kissed me, quickly so no one would see. Man that took me back. Last time he was here he'd asked me out on a date, my first in a long time. After words we went to his room on the ship and asked me to stay the night. I said yes and we had the most wonderful night together. I had no idea he was so flexible.  
I snapped out of my thoughts when Jazz lightly tugged on my arm as he went towards the now frightened looking femmie. He gently took her hand and walked her towards me.

"Starlit, this is Prowl." He cooed taking my hand in his free one. "Prowl, Starlit." He lightly put her small hand in mine. She gave me a sad smile, let go and took a timid step towards me. I saw she had tears in her optics so I stupidly thought I should try to comfort her but putting my arms around her. Sure it was the logical thing to do but not to a traumatized bot. She freaked out and ran behind Jazz and squeezed the life out of his arm. Poor thing was shaking now out of fear of me. ME! He gently pulled her around until she was in front of him and put on arm around her while the other stroked her helm.  
"Starlit, I've told you about Prowl." He whispered kneeling down making himself shorter than her. "He's not gona hurt 'cha. He wouldn' hurt anyone." She shook her head and an stepped back from him. He sighed and stood back up, she still clung to his arm as if I was some sort of Cybertronion monster about to eat her. He gently pushed her arms off and gently pushed her slowly towards me.  
"No!" She cried and tried to get away. I felt hurt and embarrassed by this since now every optic was now on me, wondering what I did to make her scream.  
"Starlit please." Jazz said trying not lose his cool.  
"I don't feel the connection." She whispered harshly. She was hiding something from me, but it seemed Jazz knew what was going on.  
"Try to sweet spark. I know it might be hard to but it's there."  
When I realized what connection she was talking about, I decided to make things some what easier and tried to connect to her. I pushed through the fire wall she put up around her spark bond and let her know I was just as scared. This freaked her out even more. She cried out again and buried her face into Jazz's chassis. While she couldn't see, Jazz motioned for me to come forward and kneel down in front of her.  
"Starlit, I'm just as scared as you are." I sighed as I knelt down. She turned her head to look at me, her optics wide with fear. "I don't know you and vise verse, but I'll try my best to be there for you. Ok?" At this I felt a little of fear fade from her spark, but not her face. I let all the love I could muster bleed through our sibling connection, making the connection grow stronger. I watched as her optics dimmed a little, the fear fading from them. I smiled and to my surprise she smiled back, sadly but still a smile.  
"So what happened to her?" Optimus asked, walking up to us, the others in tow. The others hung back a bit, but I could tell they were excited to meet her.  
"That's what we want to know." Jazz said while he readjusted to allow Starlit to see everyone. "Jetfire and Jetstorm where flying around an old battle field when they called us."  
"Yes, she crying her optics out." Jetfire said with his almost Russian accent. "So we fly down to side of her. She almost slagged us!"  
"Luckily, she did not have weapons activated on her." Jetstorm added in the same accent as his twin. "Not authorized yet."  
I looked back at the teen-aged femmie Jazz's arm was around, I noticed on the top of her head she had a chevron similar to mine. It was currently buried into the crook of Jazz's arm. She was quiet, not making any comments as the twins went on telling how they got her to the ship. She sniffed and wiped away stray tears with the arm that wasn't pinned up against Jazz's chassis. I moved a bit closer to them. She moved closer to Jazz again, still wary of me.  
"You're safe here Starlit." He whispered making sure no one else heard. "Your brother will take care of you. I promise." She smiled at him, and looked back at me.  
"Hi there Starlit," Optimus said crouching in front of us. "My name is Optimus Prime. Welcome to Earth." The look on her face was of fear and anger. I'm guessing the anger was from being treated like a sparkling.  
\------------------------------------------------------------  
After the others introduced themselves, we took off towards the plant. Starlit was still too young to transform but luckily our creator equipped wheels on the bottom of her peds, so she could at least keep up with us. She was quite good at the skating but since she was unfamiliar with the pavement skidded a little on every turn.  
On the home stretch Bumblebee got the idea to start chasing her. At first she was a little scared by the yellow compact following her so close behind, but warmed up to the idea after a little while. Her laugh was cute, just like creator, beautiful and melodic. Maybe this wasn't going to be as bad as I'd thought; maybe this change would be good for her.  
\-----------------------------------------------------------  
We got to the plant but Starlit wouldn't step into the driveway. Poor little thing was scared of the old broken building, so much in fact Jazz was the only one to finally convince her to come into the drive by telling her she'd be safer inside from what ever was after her. She got a scared look on her face and ran to me. She wrapped her arms around me and buried her face into my chassis. I looked at Jazz but he just shrugged.  
Once inside she stood in the middle of the room just looking at the place, amazed by everything. So we just let her explore.  
\------------------------------------------------------------  
Starlit's View:

I know I was acting like a total sparkling earlier, but what would you do if you witnessed something terrible and were forced to keep it quiet unless you wanted them to find you? Then be taken to another planet to a brother you never even knew about? Why wouldn't creator tell me about him?!  
Jazz had told me about Prowl. He told me he was a ninja bot like him and one of the best. I wondered if he meant ninja or in the berth. Either way, I wasn't sure I could handle another loss in my life. Everything I'd ever loved was taken from me, never there or missing. I didn't know my real Sire, so Prowl being my brother and my only next of kin was now my care taker. Great now I have to live with a mech who looked a lot like the mech that was after me.  
Woh dizzy spell. Weird. I walked over to their computers and found pads scattered every where, and I thought I was bad. I picked one up and read it. It was about someone's medical record and how many dents and broken circuitry Ratchet had to fix. Bumblebee was the name across the top. Sucks to be him. Wooohhh...not another one...why is everything spinning? Why can't I call out? Who are these bots agian? THUD!


	2. Chapter 2

Prowl's view:

While Starlit was exploring, we all went into the main living quarters to talk more on where she came from.  
"So where exactly was she found?" I asked, trying to keep an optic on Starlit.  
"Twins said between Iacon and Praxus." Jazz answered since no one else seemed to hear me.  
"Yes, in an old Decipticon battle field." Jetstorm chimed in after hearing Jazz's answer.  
"Praxis huh?" I said taking my optics off Starlit, who was exploring the computer area, to listen to everything they had to say. "Interesting…"  
"Why's that?" Jazz asked stepping closer to me.  
"I grew up in Praxus but my creator wasn't stationed there last time I heard so why…" I was interrupted by a horrible crashing noise near the computers. "Huh?"  
I ran over there as fast as I could but Jazz still some how got there before I did. He knelt down around the corner so I couldn't see him  
"Jazz…what's wrong?" I said walking around to find an unconscious Starlit in Jazz' arms, he was asking her if she could hear him. "Oh slag. Is she…" I gasped, kneeling beside him.  
"Move aside!" Ratchet cried pushing through the small crowd that had formed around the computer. "Let me see her, Prowl move aside!"  
I watched in worry as he scanned her, hoping that she was ok.  
"She seems fine; all her systems are running and normal. Only thing is…has she had any energon?" He said directly to Jazz.  
"Phs yeah!" Jazz scoffed. "She drank a ton after she came to us. Poor girl. Acted like she haden't had any in days."  
"Hmmm…" Ratchet mumbled but wasn't able to say anything else 'cause Starlit started to stir.  
\------------------------------------------------------------  
Starlit's view: 

Oh…what happened? Where am I? Who am…oh yeah I'm Starlit. But who is holding me? And why the frag are the lights so bright?  
"Oww…" I moaned trying to sit up but finding it hurt a little so stopped.  
"You alright Starlit?" the black and white mech holding me asked. How'd he know me? I didn't know him. So I tried to get out of his arms but another mech, a white and red one, told me not to move.  
"Who…who are you?" I said in a weak voice even though I didn't feel weak. At that the black and white sat me up straight.  
"What do you mean?" The white and red asked. That's when I noticed the others, all looking straight at me. One was quite a bit smaller than the rest and didn't look like any bot I'd ever seen. Or maybe I had. Did bots have strange red wire coming out from the top of their heads? "Starlit, look at me kid. What do you mean you don't know who we are?"  
Now I was really freaked, even this old mech knew who I was.  
"I…I don't know you. GET AWAY FROM ME!" I cried trying to stand up and run only to trip and fall into a black and gold mech's arms. "LET ME GO!"  
"Hey now, you're ok." the black and white said coming towards me slowly, keeping his voice calm and slow. "You're safe here ok. No one wants ta hurt ya." Why did his voice seem to calm me? And what was that feeling in my chest? I was like some one was talking to me but no one spoke out loud. I cried out and pushed away, causing me to fall backwards onto the hard floor.  
"Ok kid, calm down now." The white and red mech said some what calmly. "You're gona hurt yourself. My name's Ratchet. This here is Jazz and he is your brother, Prowl." Ratchet said first pointing to the black and white and then to the black and gold.  
"My what?" I asked as Ratchet helped me back up.  
"Brother." Prowl answered and I felt that weird thing in my chest.  
"What is that…?" I asked, looking down at my chassis and putting a servo over it.  
"It's called a bond." Ratchet interrupted me. "It's between bond mates or in your case siblings."  
"What's a bond?" I asked only to have some yellow bot laugh at me.  
"BUMBLEBEE SHUT IT!" Ratchet yelled, scaring me a bit. "Never mind that now kid. You've seem to have lost your memory."  
"Why?" Prowl asked for me.  
"I'm gona guess from trauma from witnessing something, but I can't be too sure. She doesn't seem to have hit her head so…"  
"What happened?" I cried a bit panicked. "Wh-why can't I remember any thing but my name!?"  
"Shhh…kid it's gona be ok." Ratchet said wiping a tear off my cheek. I didn't know I was crying. "We're gonna help you, ok? I promise."  
"So…does this mean you don't remember who anyone of us are?" The yellow and black mech asked sitting upon the computer conical. I shook my head and sighed in frustration.  
"Frag it, I don't have time for this!" A blue and orange mech cried out earning glares from everyone but me. "We are on a tight schedule!"  
"Sentinel, please she's not…" A red and blue mech started but was cut off by this Sentinel guys ranting. "Never mind."  
"So where am I?" I looked up and asked Prowl.  
"A planet called Earth." He answered. "This place is mostly made of organic material rather then metal like on our home planet, Cybertron."  
"Where's that?" I asked getting the yellow bot to scoff.  
"BUMBLEBEE, FOR THE LAST TIME, SHUT IT!" Ratchet yelled.  
"What?!" Bumblebee, that's who it was, cried earning a smack on the top of his head from Ratchet. "Oww! What was that for?" no one answered but I laughed at him.  
"How does it feel to be laughed at when you're in pain?" Jazz retorted. Bumblebee just groaned and turned away.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------  
After a few more questions about Cybertron and Earth they decided that they should re-introduce themselves to me.  
"You've met Jazz, Ratchet, Bumblebee and Sentinel right?" Prowl asked me in a suodo questioning voice. "This it Optimus Prime, Bulkhead, and the twins Jetfire and Jetstorm, and our human friend Sari." He nodded to the red and blue, then a big green bot, then the twins an orange bot and blue bot and finally the smallest one who I thought was a weird bot but was a 'human'. I sort of waved shyly at them and the twins grinned and waved back. Sentinel glared at them and Jazz, telling me quietly, he didn't like Sentinel all that much.  
"Prowl, what's this?" I asked pointing the strange sign on his chassis. I noticed I had one as well in the same location, only mine was a little smaller.  
"It's the sign that we are Autobots." He answered. "There is another kind of bots. They are called the Depicticons. Their sign is purple and you never want to get too close to any of them."  
"Why?" I asked this time Sentinel scoffed  
"Because, they like to take younglings like you and eat them for breakfast!" Sentinel continued. My optics widened slightly.  
"Sentinel! That ain't true!" Jazz said taken aback.  
"Then what is?" I asked.  
"Maybe we'll tell ya some oth'a time." Jazz smiled and rubbed the top of my helm. In other words, when the big chinned bot was gone.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------  
Prowl's view:  
"Alright we've wasted enough time here! Come on let's go!" Sentinel yelled.  
"Sir yes sir!" The twins called and ran to his side.  
"Yo SP, ya mind if I stay the night here? As long as it's ok with ya'll." Jazz asked getting a nod from Optimus and a glare from Sentinel.  
"Fine but we leave first thing tomorrow!" He yelled transforming and driving out of the plant with the twins following close behind. We never did see them transform however and hear what sound like two jets take off.  
"Well…it's still early, what shall we do?" Optimus said scratching his helm.  
"Get Star a room?" Jazz shrugged. I nodded and we went in search of a room that wasn't in poor shape.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------  
Most of the plant was destroyed from years of being uncared for, so most of the rooms where caved in or had mold. Luckily there where enough rooms for the five of us when we first came, but now I wasn't so sure.  
We first searched the far side of the plant but found that half of the plant was no where near fit for living in, for bots or humans. The rooms were starting to cave in and could go at any time. Next was a room near Bee's room but the smell of stagnant oil from his room was so bad no one wanted to be there for long. The last place we looked was a room near mine. The door was rusted shut but with a little prying it opened, revealing a huge untouched room. I was about the size of mine but it didn't have a tree in the middle.  
"Wow…" Starlit sighed.  
"Ya like it?" Jazz smiled. "It needs some of the walls patched and looks like the windows need cleaned, but pit it could be nice, dig?"  
"I like it." She said walking in to the huge space. She then walked over to the windows and rubbed her finger across the glass revealing the outside light. "Eww…What is this?"  
"Mixture of dirt and rust it looks like." I said walking over to the cracked wall. "We'll need to get this fixed first before you sleep in here. So tonight you'll have to stay with Jazz and me."


	3. Chapter 3

Starlit's view:

While the others started on cleaning and patching up the room, Ratchet took me to this place called a med bay for a check up. I have no idea what that was. Prowl decided to come along, "Just in case" as he said.  
"Just sit here and hold still while a scan your processor." Ratchet said upon entering the huge cluttered room full of what I guessed was medical tools. Dispitse the clutter, each tool was placed perfectly and polished on a medical table.  
"Sorry but what's a processor?" I asked getting Ratchet to chuckle.  
"It's what controls what you do. It tells your body what to do before you physically do it." Was his answer as he helped me sit on the table like thing.  
Once I was up on the table, or berth actually is what Prowl told me, Ratchet's finger opened up and reviled a light which scanned my optic, blinding me and causing me to turn away.  
"Good, well every thing's functioning fine." He said reading the report he got. "Not quite sure what has caused the memory loss. My guess she witnessed something horrible and her processor is trying to block it." Ratchet said more to Prowl than to me, even though he was looking at me.  
"She did." Jazz's voice echoed as he entered the room. "She told me on the ship. She didn't tell me a whole lot but enough to say that…Prowl she witnessed your creators murder."  
This made something break inside of me. It felt like my chest was being ripped open. Prowl looked at Jazz in shock and tried to say something but couldn't find the words. It took me a moment to realize it was Prowl's feelings I was feeling.  
"How…Who did this?" Prowl finally said as a tear came down from behind his visor.  
"Don' know." Jazz sighed taking a hold of Prowl's shoulders and hugging him. He kissed his forehead and whispered "I love you" to him and "It's ok babe."  
"Prowl, what's love?" I asked making them both smile."It's when two bots really like each other, they fall in love." Jazz smiled wiping the tear from Prowl's cheek.  
"Always knew you two'd fall for one another." Ratchet sighed. "You're good to go kid." he said, turning back to me.  
\--------------------------------------------------------------------  
We went back into my in progress room and saw Bulkhead plastering the crack in the room while Bumblebee and Optimus Prime cleaned and fixed up the windows. Sari was picking out a paint color with swatches spread out on the floor. I don't know why she was doing that though, I liked the walls.  
"Looking good." Jazz smiled and went over to help Bulkhead. Prowl led me over to Bee and Prime to help with the windows. The windows where disgusting and when they where touched, a huge amount of dust and rust clung to your hands. Prowl handed me a rag and we began cleaning.  
While doing this I hear a small cracking sound right before hearing "Look out!" and being pushed out of the way. Then a crash sounded.  
"Ya'll right?" Bumblebee asked helping me up. I nodded and looked to where the sound of crashing came from. Part of the ceiling had came down right where Prowl and I where working.  
"Prowl?" I cried panicked that I didn't see him.  
"I'm over here Starlit." He said from behind me, right beside Jazz. "You ok?" I nodded.  
"Maybe this 'ill take long'a than we thought…" Jazz sighed as more rubble came down.  
"Looks like it." Optimus said looking up to the second level of the plant through the hole. "Alright 'bots lets get to work. Starlit I'm sorry but it's too dangerous for you in here. Why don't you go to Prowl's room and hang in there. You too Sari." The femmie er...human huffed and muttered something about how she'd go to the living room, where there was more light.  
I shrugged and walked out of the room and crossed the hall to where Prowl told me his room was. I walked in and was amazed by the sunlight, and this weird brown thing with green things on it that grew from the ground. I slowly walked over with my arm stretched out until it came in contact with this amazing object. The brown surface was hard and rough while the green things where soft with these vain like stuff running through them. While looking at these, a small feathery thing came and landed next to me on one of the smaller brown appendages and chirped at me.  
"Hello strange feathery creature. What is your name?" No answer but it did turn its head a few times and came a little closer. "Ok…what are you doing?" It flew up and landed on my finger and looked at me with its strange black optics. I just looked back and lifted my other hand to pet it. It turned away but let me gently pet its head. It was soft and felt like…uh…what was that stuff called again…oh yeah, velvet.  
"See ya got yer self a friend." Jazz said from the doorway startling me and I accidentally damaged the creatures wing.  
"Oops…sorry…" I said setting the creature's on the branch. "Umm…here I got something to help." I pulled out some pads and medical tape I had swiped from Ratchet's med bay, and had Jazz come over and hold the creature while I wrapped its wing to help it heal. "There, that should help."  
"Yer creator a medic?" He asked.  
"Not that I remember." Prowl said walking in and upon seeing what had happened, he took the small thing from me. He then walked over and put in into a cage where it tried to fly but landed on the bottom of the cage and sat there chirping and scolding me.  
"It's ok Starlit. The bird will heal." Prowl said leading me to the berth; I sat down and cuddled into him realizing I was tired from a long day. Prowl saw this and laid me down as he and Jazz laid beside me, each on either side of me.  
"Sleep younglin'. Ya had a long day." Jazz said creasing my helm.  
Prowl started humming a familiar tune and lulled me to sleep. I slowly drifted off, wondering where I had heard the song before.


	4. Chapter 4

Starlit's view:

I awoken to an empty berth but heard somebot up in the tree. Make that two somebot's. Prowl and Jazz where sitting on opposite branches of each other, whispering and occasionally leaning in and pressing their lip components together while smiling.  
"Prowl…?" I said in more of a groggy voice then I meant too. This startled Prowl, but Jazz just turned his head and smiled at me.  
"Mornin' sunshine." Jazz smiled and leapt down from the tree after Prowl. "How ya doin'?"  
"Good." I yawned. "What time is it?"  
"Early. No one else is awake yet. You can go back to sleep if you wish." Prowl said stroking my helm. I laid down but found I didn't want to sleep. Something felt off…I didn't feel good. Oh slag…  
I sat up quickly, covering my mouth but it didn't stop me from purging. I gagged as I threw up.  
"Woh! Hold on sweet spark." Jazz said taking a hold of me, keeping me from falling off the berth. "Ya ok? I got cha…it's all right."  
Why me?  
"What happened Starlit?" Prowl asked. He helped me get off the berth and rushed me to his waste room. Once there he quickly sat me in front of the waste tank where I proceeded to purge again.  
"Shhh…it's all right Starlit." He said rubbing my back as Jazz stood in the door way. "Jazz could you go get Ratchet?" I heard Prowl say and heard Jazz take off. Then a huge processor ach came over me. I groaned and leaned into Prowl's chassis and sobbed. I saw a white flash and heard a faint scream that wasn't mine. It scared me that I reconized the scream but couldn't place it. After that I must have passed out.  
\------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Prowl's view:   
I held Starlit as she groaned in pain like she had a massive hang-over. Poor femmie.  
"What's going on? What the frag is so urgent that you two have to wake me up at five in the morning?" Ratchet's irritated voice filled our room. "Really I mean…what happened?" He stopped his rant and softened his tone once he saw my very sick sister 'sleeping' in my arms.  
"Don' know. She woke up and well, look at the berth. She didn't seem sick last night." Jazz said as Ratchet scanned Starlit.  
"Just a strain of bad coding, she'll be fine. Must have hit her while she was sleeping." He said rubbing her helm gently and standing up. "Here, give this to her. It'll help her keep her energon down." he said handing me a small green energon cube. I'd give it to her when she woke up.  
\------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Once Ratchet left we cleaned up our berth, changed the sheets, washed down the soft metal and put new sheets on; then we put a groggy and sickly Star back on it. None of this was adding up to me though. First a memory loss then a purging of her tanks...it all had me worried.  
"Well, that was fun." Jazz teased sitting down by Starlit's feet. I rolled my optics behind my visor and started to walk to the other side of him only to be stopped by Jazz's legs wrapping around my waist. "Come 'ere." He grunted pulling me into him.  
"Jazz, not hmm…" I was cut off by his lips crashing into mine.  
"She's out cold. 'Sides we don't have to interface. We can just make-out…" He said peppering kisses on my face. I didn't protest but I also didn't encourage him, but I let him love me without going to far.  
He started to rub my jet boosters making me moan into our kiss and allowing his glossa to enter. Our glossa's fought of awhile before Jazz decided my neck needed to be licked and bitten.  
"Ahh! Jazz…please…" I tried to beg him to stop before it was too late but Starlit had chosen that point to wake up.  
"Prowl…what are you two doing?" She asked looking at us with wide optics. I was so embarrassed.  
"Kissin'." Jazz painted from below me.  
"Not helping…" I hissed pushing off him, trying to hide my embarrassment.  
It also didn't help that Starlit then asked what kissing was and Jazz suggested another demonstration with me. I glared and told her it was what two bots in love did.


	5. Chapter 5

Starlit's view:

It has been a few weeks since I saw that flash of light and the spark wrenching scream crashing through it. I told Prowl about it but he said it was probably just a nightmare. Problem was I wasn't sleeping when it happened.  
Since that strange occurrence, Prowl has taught me a lot about our family and this strange planet. Prowl and I have the same creator, Nautica , but two different sires making us half siblings; or, maybe we did have the same Sire. That wasn't clear. His sire's name was Sideways, but my sire is still unknown. Prowl tells me Sideways wasn't a nice mech at all and an even worst Sire. He cursed at him and would call him worthless. Then one day when Prowl was seven, Sideways went too far and our creator took Prowl away and severed her bond with him. Prowl lived with her until the draft made him run away which led him to this Master Yoketron, where he learned to be a ninja bot. Jazz was also taught under Yoketron as I later found out and wondered why he and Prowl hadn't met before Earth.  
Speaking of Earth, I learned that the dominate race here where humans. That is what Sari is but she also happens to be part cybertronion. This confuses me and I don't think I'll ever understand and most likely don't want to know how a human and a robot did that.   
I've also learned Earth is very beautiful and has tons of amazing things, like the tree in Prowl's room. He told me the tree grew despite being trapped in the dark building. Bumblebee kept saying it was an optic sore and should be taken out but Prowl, Jazz and I like it. It beings life in to the dreary and depressing orange walls that are all around the base. Earlier in the week the tree started blooming beautiful white flowers and made the base smell sweet instead of like old oil and rust.   
Jazz tried to explain that we had come from a planet called Cybertron that was made off mostly metal. I couldn't remember my home planet but tried to imagine Earth only with metal trees and plants. He also tried to get me to remember where my home was and where it was located on Cybertron. I could only remember it was an apartment on like the third or second floor but nothing else.  
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"Starlit! Come here!" Bumblebee called me from Prowl's room, where I was writing in my diary Jazz had given me, incase I could remember any thing and no one was around to tell. So far I had used it to write down different flowers I saw and my current thoughts.  
I walked out and saw he and Sari where setting up a new game controller. Bee had taught me how to play video games but I never participated in their bets. One time Bumblebee won and made Sari clean his nasty room. She passed out from the fumes not long after she entered and Bee got scolded by Ratchet and Prime. He was sentenced to monitor duty for two weeks and had to clean his own room.  
"What?" I asked seeing this weird controller with no buttons and was shaped like a cone. "What's that?"  
"It's called a microphone." Sari giggled. "You sing into it!"  
"Why would you do that?" I asked getting Bumblebee to laugh at me. "What? I don't understand."  
"Bee come on. We'll show you how it works." Sari said putting the game into the console.  
Once it was in, the screen lit up with the words 'Karaoke Revolution'. She pressed start and it went into a screen to choose your character and customize them how ever you want. Sari's avatar looked like her only it had bright pink hair and a huge yellow visor with green lenses. Bumblebee's avatar had dark skin like Sari and bright green hair and big red shoes and his pants where hanging down showing what humans called underwear. His shirt was yellow with a black stripe, as where his pants, just like his chest armor.  
"Your turn!" Sari happily cried handing me a real controller. I just stared blankly at the screen which was asking me if I was a boy or a girl. I'd learned earlier that week that girl meant femmie and boy meant mech. I continued and changed my femmie character into how I wanted her to be. I choose long red hair, almond shaped optics, and pale skin for her. Her clothing was harder to choose but I eventually choose white knee high pants to match me and a tank top with a short sleeve sweat shirt over it. The under shirt was white as well but the top shirt was a light blue green with light violet accents just like my armor. Then I got into accessories and Sari said she and Bee had to choose for me like they had for each other. They had me leave for a few clicks, but when I came back I was horrified. My pretty character was turned into a freak! She had a huge red boa around her neck and horrid looking black bracelets that looked like vines with spikes and spiders that ran up her arms. To top it off she wore a Viking helmet, a bright pink one at that. Both of my friends had huge smiles plastered on their faces at my look of terror.  
"Like it? I think it's the best one so far!" Bee scoffed. I was going to tell them to change it but Sari pressed start and we had to choose our songs, but we choose songs for each other. Sari and I choose "She Thinks My Tractors Sexy" for Bumblebee, which he was horrified by, Bee and I choose "Baby One More Time" for Sari, and Bee and Sari choose a song called "Miss You" for me.  
Sari did great but she was defiantly not a soprano and shrieked on the high notes. Bumblebee on he other hand…I'm not sure I can hear out of my left audio any more, his voice was like nails on a chalk board! Jazz, Prowl and Ratchet even came out wondering who was hurt but Sari and just laughed and pointed to a glowering Bumblebee.  
Now it was my turn. I started off well but then these strange images started to appear. They weren't on the screen but flashing in my mind. I didn't know what was going on but all I remember was going down with Bumblebee rushing to my side and calling my name as I blacked out with an image of a screaming femmie clouding my vision and screams ringing in my audios.  
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Prowl's view:

I was quiet in the base for once. Ratchet hadn't yelled at Bumblebee yet today, Starlit was even venturing out further than just our room to the waste room. Everything was semi-normal enough that Jazz and I finally had some alone time together.  
"Mmmm Prowl, this is nice." Jazz sighed putting his arms around me and kissing my cheek. "I really missed this alone time with ya. I really want to do this more..."  
He was cut off by a horrible screeching sound. We looked at each other before deciding to go see what the pit was going on. Once out in the main living we saw that Starlit, Sari and Bumblebee where all playing some kind of singing game. It was Bumblebee's voice that was making the horrible noise. Jazz's face was even slightly twisted in pain from it; even I was trying not to make a face.  
"What in Primus sakes?!" Ratchet started to yell but stopped to cover his audios.  
We all thanked Primus when his horrible rendition of She Thinks My Tractors Sexy was over. Starlit grabbed the microphone from Bee before he could do any more damage to her left audio, which she kept rubbing.  
Sari pressed start and Starlit's song started. She had a very sweet soft voice but was wavering from a little stage fright. Then something went wrong. She dropped the microphone and clutched her head as if in pain. She doubled over and landed over on to Bee's lap, who yelped and was now freaking out about the pain stricken femmie.  
"Starlit?" I cried rushing over to my sisters aid only to hear her mumbling strange words. "Can you hear me? Starlit?!"  
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Starlit's view:

I could see a big room, flashes of faces smiling, all in blue monochromatic tones. A femmie was talking to me, telling me to help her stir energon mix for energon sweets. Then strange flashes of a screaming face. Now the femmie was telling me to hide in here as she shut the door. I could still see out of the horizontal slits in the louvered doors. More screams as a shadow was seen cutting down the nice femmie which I now think was my creator. Her screams echoed through my head but another voice was cutting through this nightmare.

"Starlit?" It echoed as if it were far away. "Can you hear me?"  
The voice sounded like it was getting closer to me, or I was getting closer to it.  
"Come on, lay her on the floor." Another voice said even louder now. "Bumblebee back up!" I felt some one open my optic and found myself blinded by a scanners light. I swung my arm and batted the arm away from my face earning a growl from the voice.  
"Starlit, you alright?" I heard Prowl's voice call out in concern.  
"I think her memory might be coming back." Ratchet said setting me up against his shoulder. "Hey kiddo, you ok? Did you hurt you self at all? Ya landed pretty hard."  
My vision was slightly blurry and every thing was bright when I opened my optics. I quickly shut them and covered them with my hands.  
"Bulkhead could you turn down the lights?" Ratchet called out. Not long after that the lights went down and I could uncover them again. Thank primus for light dimmer switches.  
"So it won't come back at once?" Jazz asked. "Well is that good or bad?"  
How long was I spacing out?  
"Good and bad. But mostly good since if her memories did all come back at once it could crash her processor." Ratchet sighed. "Bad news is I could take sometime before we find out who killed your twos creator." He motioned to Prowl to come and take me from his arms. Once Prowl had a hold of me, Ratchet examined the rest of me to make sure I hadn't twisted or broken any thing. I was cleared.  
"So they're just going to hit like this and make 'er pass out? Crazy..." Jazz asked leaning over the back of the couch.  
"Yes, but they could also come in nightmares. I don't want her moving into her new room quite yet. Just in case they get too vivid and well...if no one if there to calm her she may freak out more than needed. I don't want her hurting herself. This will be temporary. Just until the nightmares go away." Ratchet said trying not to worry us. It didn't work and worried us more.  
"She's going to be ok though?" Sari asked with big blue eyes, looking like I was about to die.  
"Yes, she'll be fine other wise." The white and red medic sighed.  
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Prowl view:

After we finished talking to Ratchet we took a now recharging Starlit into our room. Again there was no other bed for her other than ours, so we laid her there until we moved her bed into ours for the time being.  
"Jazz, I think we shouldn't interface while she's staying with us. I...I don't want her to uhh...see us do it." I stuttered.  
"Of course not baby. 'Sides I'm not here to just interface with cha all the time." Jazz said wrapping his arms around my waist. "I love you, and now that you have a charge I'll respect your word."  
"Oh, and you didn't before?"  
"Well I...yes I did! I didn't mean it to sound like I never..." I cut him off by turning around and kissing him.  
"Hush, I'm only teasing. I know what you meant. Thank you Jazz, I love you too."


	6. Chapter 6

Prowl's View:

We decided to move Starlit's berth into my room, for now, that way Jazz and I had a place to sleep without the fear of squishing her. It was perfect for two bots, but three was too much. Jazz finished setting up and making her bed while I went to move her. She was a sound sleeper and didn't awaken when I picked her up or even when I set her down on her bed. Once that was done, I wanted to just go to bed, but Jazz had other plans.

"Jazz…mmm…not in front…of…Starlit!" I whispered in between the kisses, reminding him of what he promised me.  
"What's wrong…she's sleeping soundly. 'Sides…Ratchet said she'd be out the rest of the night." He whispered teasingly in my audio pushing me gently up against the tree. I knew he wouldn't do anything here other than kiss me, but...  
"I don't care…Jazz…" I growled as he kissed my neck. "Remember what I said earlier?"  
"Shhh…I wouldn't dare do it here baby." Jazz smiled as he pulled away. "Let's go to another room. I know just the place…it's just down the hall past the med…" I stopped him right there as Starlit rolled over, I thought she had awakened.  
"Alright…" I smiled. "But we need to be back in here before she wakes up tomorrow." Jazz gave me one of his "I win" smiles and we ran out the door to the other room.  
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Before the door even shut we already had each others glossas in each others mouths, groping everything we could reach on each others bodies.  
"Primus Prowl... I missed this." Jazz panted.  
"Uh...Me too…" my plating retracted reviling my semi-hard shaft. Jazz smiled as his visor retracted reviling his two different colored optics, one was a beautiful gold while the other optic was a dark azure blue. He pulled me down to the floor and laid me onto my back. That's when I realized we where inside a storage closet of some kind. He climbed on top of me and plunged himself onto my spike once it was hard enough.  
"GRAAA!" I screamed as he took me in. "Primus Jazz…uh…that felt good."  
"Slag…uh…" he cried as a tear streamed down his cheek. "That hurt a little."  
"Primus Jazz…don't…Ngh…do that then." He laughed as we started to kiss again.  
After he settled down and got over the pain, he started to move.  
"I-I gotta ask...w-why are you...hmmm..."  
"So riled up?" He panted. "I'm..." he blushed. "I'm in heat..."  
"Say no more." I smirked at him and pulled him down to kiss me. He whined, his fans kicking into high gear. I rolled my hips into him, pushing deep inside. I heard a clicked and looked up, seeing his chassis had opened up to reveal his spark.   
"P-please Prowler..." He begged. I relented, opening my chassis as well. He didn't even wait and pushed them together. I hadn't been planning on merging with him while he was like this, but heat made you do crazy things.  
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Starlit's View:

I woke up to a loud bang from somewhere in the room. My optics shot open right as a huge flash of light lit up the room with another huge bang following the light. It was all coming from the sky!  
"PROWL!" I cried rushing over to his bed only to find they weren't there. When had my berth been moved into their room? "Prowl? Prowl where are you? Jazz? "Somebody? ANYBODY?" I was panicking. Where could they be? I rushed over to the tree only to get dripped on by something that fell off the tree then stepped right into a puddle of the stuff. I couldn't see in the darkness, but it felt squishy and sucked me in a little. I pulled back and ran to the door as the room was filled with that bright white light again. I pulled the door open and ran down the hall as a huge boom filled the air and shook the ground.  
"Prowl?" I cried hearing my voice echo off the walls. "Jazz…where are you?" now I was getting really freaked out. No one seemed to respond to me and the light and sound was getting brighter and louder.  
Then I remembered Prowl told me, if he wasn't there to go to Optimus. I ran across the hall to Optimus' room only to find the door locked.  
"Optimus?" I cried after another light filled the plant. "Optimus are you in there?!" After a few nano seconds I heard someone groan and foot steps coming towards the door. The door opened, reviling a tired looking Prime.  
"Wha….What's going on Starlit?" He yawned.  
Before I could even respond another bang filled the plant causing me to leap forward and wrap my arms around Prime. Were we under attack?  
"Hey, it's alright. It's only a thunder storm." He said rubbing the back of my helm. "Didn't Prowl tell you about them?" I shook my head as I cuddled closer as another flash shown through his window. The window rattled with another boom.  
"I don't know where he is." I sobbed and buried my face into his chest. "I'm scared…can I stay with you?" he sighed and lead me into his room. It had one lamp, that was made from a tire rim and a tail pipe, in the corner turned on which lit his berth and a small area around it. Other than that his room was dark and uncluttered, accept when this lightning storm decided to flash.  
"Here, take my berth. I'll get the spare from my closet." He said opening his closet and pulling out a fold out berth.  
"No I can take that one, really." I said.  
"No, you can take mine. It's...comfier." He was being…what did Jazz call it…chivalrous. I decided to not argue any more and just take it. Optimus was too nice to say no and wouldn't take no for an answer.  
"Thank you Prime…" I said lying down on his berth.  
"You're very welcome Starlit." He said shutting the light off and laying on the fold out berth.  
\---------------------------------------------------------------  
Optimus Prime's view:

I awoke the next morning wondering why my back struts hurt. Oh yeah...Starlit. I thought as the night came back to me, poor spark was in tears when she came to me. I checked my internal clock to check the time and found it was eight. I turned to look over to check on her but found my berth empty.  
"Starlit?" I asked only then realizing after I said it, I was alone. I quickly got up and rushed out of my room. "Starlit?" I called out as I entered the main living room. As I got out there Prowl and Jazz came running up behind me  
"Hey OP, have you seen Starlit?" Jazz asked as he approached.  
"Yes, she came into my room last night looking for you. I let her stay with me but when I woke up, she was gone." I said and Prowl sighed in relief.  
"Thank Primus." He sighed again. "Her berth in our room has been crushed by a large tree branch. I-I thought something bad had happened."  
"No, but thank goodness she wasn't there." I said as we continued to search for the allusive femmie.  
\------------------------------------------------------------  
Starlit's view:  
I woke up early the next morning due to the fact I was in an unfamiliar place and some loud snoring. I sat up and rubbed my optics and looked over to Prime. He was dead a sleep on the tiny cot that was too small for him. I felt bad for taking his berth from him. He was snoring from being in an awkward position.  
I got up and walked around wondering who would be up at this time. Checking my internal clock it was four in the morning, much too early for even Prowl to be up. Speaking of Prowl...I wonder where he and Jazz went. Deciding I had nothing better to do, I walked out of Primes' room and shut the door as quietly as I could. I could still hear rain dripping down off the roof and onto the pavement but no more loud noises. I tip toed down the hall to the main living area to see what I could do there that wouldn't awaken any one. I found some data pads about Cybertron's history and some that had some weird pictures of mechs and femmies doing weird things. None of them peaked my interest so I moved on to looking for odd things to make something out of. I found a spring, a few screws and a large piece of sheet metal.  
I continued my search until I ended up right in front of Ratchet's med bay. I slowly opened the door to find the lights where on.  
"Weird...wonder who's up?" I thought as I stepped in. I looked around and saw that no one is around and set the pieces down on the work bench. I grabbed some tools out of his drawer and begin to work away. I looked around and found some wires. Continuing on my project, I didn't even hear Ratchet come in.  
"What in sparks name are you doing up?" he said making me jump.  
"Oh! H-hey Ratchet." I said trying to get my spark rate back to normal. "Sorry, I couldn't sleep."  
"It's fine." He said with a nod not even bothering to apologize for scaring the spark out of me.  
\--------------------------------------------------------------------  
After what felt like days I completed my little creation. That's when I started to hear somebot, no...three bots calling my name. They sounded worried.  
"I'm right here!" I cried as I got up and ran to the door. "What's wro..." I wasn't able to finish for I was "attacked" by Prowl in a hug.  
"Thank Primus, you're ok!" he said continuing to crush me.  
"Huh? Y-you're crushing me!" I said trying to break free.  
"We thought you where hurt." Jazz said putting a hand onto Prowl's shoulder making him release me from his crushing hug. "A tree branch crushed your berth. We didn't know you had gone to Primes' room."  
I nodded. "I'm sorry, I didn't know where you had gone." I said looking into both of their visors.  
"No, we shouldn't have left you alone like that." Prowl said sighing. "I promise you, it won't happen again."


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't get italics to work for some reason, I'm doing something wrong. Some parts are in their heads or flashes of memories. Sorry for the trouble!

Starlit's view:

Prowl has been weird all day. My little project I had made worked and I was flying it around the tree. The little creature had wings and looked what could resemble an Earth beetle on high grade energon, or steroids as Sari put it. While it was flying it accidently hit Prowl in the shoulder while he was meditating. I know he hated me bugging him during that, but I didn't mean for it to hit him.  
"Starlit!" He growled. I shrank back, scared of my big brother for the first time since I met him. "What did I tell you about bugging me while meditating?" he said holding my little bug in the palm of his hand.  
"I-I'm sorry Prowl. I was testing it out before I showed Sari and Bee." I said avoiding optic contact.  
"Then next time go else where…" he sighed.  
"But Prowl I don't want anyone to it see yet!" I said sounding like a sparkling, but it wasn't ready till now.  
"Starlit just…ENOUGH!" He snapped and clenched his fist, crushing my bug. My spark sank as I watched small pieces fall to the ground. My beetle was beyond repair.  
I felt my optics start to tear up and ran out of the room, almost colliding with Jazz. He said something to me but I didn't hear him.  
"Hey Starlit wanna…Star?" Bumblebee started to say as I ran out into the living room. I ignored him and ran outside, activating my wheels and leaving.  
\--------------------------------------------------------------------  
Prowl's view: 

I watched Starlit leave and realized what I'd done. I looked at the floor and sighed, looking at the broken bug.  
"Prowler? Hey, what's wrong with Sta'? Did something happen?" Jazz asked as he walked in. I barely heard him as I was lost in my own thoughts.  
"Yeah…um, I kinda…freaked out." I said monotonously. "I…ugh, I can't explain."  
"Prowl…I know I'm leaving but it's no reason ta take it out on ya sister." He said hugging me from behind.  
"I know…did you see where she went?" I asked. He shrugged but decided to start in her new room. She had been allowed to stay in there once more since the tree branch had fallen.  
\---------------------------------------------------------------  
Starlit's view:

I wasn't sure where I was going but I knew Prowl was mad and didn't want to see me. I also didn't want to be near him right now. I finally stopped somewhere in the middle of the city. Where that was Primus knows. I sighed and deactivated my wheels and decided to walk around. It was getting dark but still light enough for none of the street lights to come on, so I was ok until then. People didn't seem to mind me just walking about either.  
Back on Cybertron no femmie was safe no mater what time of day in the city. At least from what I remembered.  
Hey, I remember something! Oh slag…I remembered something! Instantly I was on my knees holding my head and trying to get enough control to call someone.  
"Hey you've reached Bumblebee!" a cheerful voice chimed.  
"B-Bee, help!" I said weakly before blacking out.  
\---------------------------------------------------------------  
Prowl's view:

We searched the whole base for hours looking for Starlit. We got the others to help as well, with the exception of Sentinel Prime who thought it was for the best. The jerk didn't even let us have the twins, who were worried too, help out.  
I was feeling terrible about what I had done. She told me it was an accident and I crushed her spark like her little flying toy.  
"Hey you reached Bumblebee!" I heard Bee chime and though it was Sari calling. I was about to tell him to get back to work finding Starlit when his face dropped. "Starlit? W-where are you? Hold on we're coming!" he said looking at me with a panicked look.  
"Where is she?" I cried.  
"Found her! She's in the city." Ratchet said from near the monitors. On the screen was a red dot indicating where she was.  
\-----------------------------------------------------------  
Starlit's view:

"Starlit what are you getting into?" I heard a femme's voice. I looked as saw a blurry image of somebot I knew but couldn't pin point. "You silly little sparkling, you're covered in dust." She laughed. Her laugh filled me with warmth; it made me feel safe. The images blurred like a tape being fast forward.   
A bang was heard and she looked startled. She picked me up and quickly shoved me into a closet. "Stay here, don't make a sound." She cooed and shut the door.  
I heard arguing and a sound of metal hitting metal. I heard a scream only to find it was mine.  
"No! Please! Leave her alone!" The femme screamed.  
\------------------------------------------------------  
Prowl's view:

We followed Starlit's energy signature but we where too late to stop the glitch. "Starlit!" I cried as I transformed and ran to the quivering form. Her eyes where white and she was whimpering in pain.  
"Leave her where she is!" Ratchet said moving me aside to scan her. I was worried by the fact she wasn't responding to me like last time. "Hey kid, can you hear me?" he asked only to get a whimper in reply. "Slag...her memory processor is going crazy...you know if somebot tried to delete something?"  
He had a point. It was hard deleting that information and could cause a similar trauma to this. I wondered...  
"Not us." Jazz sighed. "Poor spark..." He was answering Ratchet but somewhere in the back of my processor I wondered if Sentinel had. "She was mostly by my side the whole time. 'Corse she did tag along wit the twins from time to time..." he said thinking back. I knew the twins wouldn't have hurt her. They seemed to care for her as if she was their sister as well.  
"Was not us." Jetfire said landing near by with his brother Jetstorm. Seems they were able to escape Sentinel and come help after all.  
"Now what in sparks sake are you two doing here?" Ratchet growled in his usual grumpy way.  
"Got distress signal near by." Jetstorm shrugged. "Was it her?"  
"But she called me!" Bee crossed his arms and huffed. "She asked for my help!"  
"Oh shove it up your exhaust port! Are you a medi-bot?!" Ratchet shouted, finally blowing a gasket. "Now those of you not directly related, get out of here before I kick your skid plates across town!" That did it and the three younger bots transformed and roll out of there.  
"Woh there Ratchet, you ok?" Jazz asked, taking a small step back. "They just wanted to make sure our little femme was a'ight." he stopped when the hot headed mech turned to look at him.  
"You want a threat too?" Jazz shook his head and was quiet the rest of the diagnostic.  
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Once back at base Starlit came too and was quite confused on how she got there.  
"Where...how did I get here?" she asked me, looking slightly like what Sari would call a kicked puppy.  
"You called me and said you where in trouble." Bumblebee said proudly. Why on Earth she had called him was beyond me.  
"Huh?" she said tilting her head.  
"That's what I said too." I smirked, receiving a glare from the yellow mech. "Why did you call him?"  
"It's organized alphabetically, he was the first on the list." She shrugged. I nearly face palmed. "What? It's true."  
"The visions kid, what where they this time?" Ratchet interrupted before I could retort.  
"Um.." Starlit suddenly clamped up and got nervous.  
\--------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Starlit's view:

I didn't want to say anything. The angry voice sounded like Prowl in the vision but I knew it wasn't. He was on Earth during that time. Then who was it?  
"Spit it out kid!" Nice bedside manner medic...  
"Um...a femme in pain; I think it was my creator..." I trailed off. I honestly couldn't tell. I tried to remember everything.  
\------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
"No! Please!" I heard the femme's voice call. I felt my spark drop as the mech that was hurting her wouldn't let up. There was energon and oil leaking out of the femme's wounds.   
I opened the closet door and yelled, "No! Please! Leave her alone!"   
"Starlit!" The femme looked up at me with fright as tears started building up in her optics. I froze when I realized I was in grave danger. I looked over and saw red optics glaring at me.  
"Foolish sparkling, you should have listened to our creator."  
\----------------------------------------------------------------------------  
I gasped in realization of who was the bot was that hurt her. "I-it was..." I looked at a concerned looking Prowl who happened to be sitting next to me. I flinched and moved away.  
"Y-you killed her?!" I cried out, surprising everyone in the room.  
"What? Killed who?" Prowl asked and started to walk toward me. I backed away and right into Prime.  
"Our creator..."


	8. Chapter 8

Prowl's View:

I had been sent to my room until we could find out what happened to my creator. Jazz was currently sitting on my berth looking up files concerning murders in Praxus. So far noting had come up.  
"Prowl, what was your creators name?" Jazz asked as he continued to look through the data pad.  
"Nautica." I said sadly. I remembered her as a kind and loving bot. She was a quantum mechanic by trade but loved learning about, well everything. "She was…I loved her." I sighed.  
"Baby, I'm sorry…" Jazz said, looking up from the pad at me. "I know it must have been hard losin' her like that." He smiled sadly at me and motioned for me to come sit by him.  
"I can't. Those files are for Elite Guard optics only." I said, turning back to look at the small bird in the cage. It was doing better and was ready to be set free. I was waiting to do it with Starlit but now…  
"Found something!" Jazz called. "There's a file on a fembot found offline in Praxus." He said sitting up again. "Prowl, I need you to confirm it's her."  
I balled my servos into fists, trying to stay calm. I took a deep breath before walking towards Jazz to look at the file. I sat down by him and looked down at the pad. Her form was grey but I knew it was her. "That's her…" I said sadly.  
Jazz opened the file to read more about it. "Found at 0600 hours in her apartment, Nautica was found offline, severely beaten and…Prowl I don't have to continue." I shook my head and told him to continue. "'Ight, but it's not pretty. Found beaten and a single shot to the processor that killed her. There is no evidence of who the killer was. Her sparklin' Starlit is in the custody of the Elite Guard and is an optic witness. Pit, I told them to keep that out of there! Anyway, this happened while you were here on Earth. We can prove it with communication videos and data logs."  
I just stared at the wall across from us in shock. Who could have done this? I didn't know any bot that could change form and imitate someone. Then again I got my hologram ability from my Sire. I wonder… "Jazz, is there any information on my Sire? His name is…Sideways."  
"A Con?!" I sighed at Jazz's surprise.  
"Yes, but he wasn't revealed as one till later in life." I shyed away. "I always knew something was off about him." Jazz nodded and looked him up.  
"Not a lot of info on 'im. The picture though looks a lot like you. He's gold and black but you can't see his face." Jazz commented. "Looks like he was a ninja bot but was kicked out, he also has a alt form like you too. Not much else…" he trailed off.  
"Mmmm…" I hummed. "I wonder where he is...Anyway, one more question, is there any way to find out who Starlit's Sire is?"  
"Not without a data energon code. And even then, there are thousands of possible mechs that would have to be tested. Sorry Prowl, but it's nearly impossible unless the mech is already registered in the system."  
"What system?" So there might be a slim chance.  
"Well, when bots enter the academy they are all subjected to giving a sample of their RNA. We can try if you want." He smiled at me.  
"If Starlit wants to yes. I just want to know…if there is a slim chance that my Sire is hers as well, then he might be after her."  
"Why?"  
"He's sadistic." I answered solemnly. "He chased after me for years. I have no idea why. I think he wanted someone to imprint upon."  
I felt a servo wrap around my shoulders. "Man, you had it tough. But it's betta now. He'll never think to find either of ya here. And if he comes lookin' for ya, I'll be here to keep hi' at bay." His words were comforting but he was leaving in less than an Earth hour.  
"Thank you Jazz." I turned to him, placing my servo on his upper leg. "But what about when you aren't here?"  
"I'm just a call away." He placed his servo on my cheek, making me look up and kissed me.  
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We walked out of the room a few klicks later and found Optimus to explain what might be going on. We found him in the main room with Sentinel.  
"Come on Jazz, we're leaving!" the blue and orange mech seemed to be in no mood for protests.  
"'Ight, but just a nano klick. We found out it couldn't have been Prowl. Whoever Sta' saw in her memory bank wasn't him, dig. But who do we know that can change their form at will?" The ninja asked his superior.  
"No known Autobot can do that." Sentinel snapped. "Research on your own time Jazz, come on!" he waved his hand in the air as he turned around and started walking out.  
Jazz sighed. "I promise to dig more ok?" He said to me be for giving me one last kiss before having to run off.  
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Luckly Starlit had been in the room when Jazz explained everything. I hadn't notice that she was sitting on the couch until I turned that way too see two green optics peering over the back of the couch.  
"Starlit." I said to her. She tilted her head, signaling she was listening. "You know I would never hurt our creator or any other bot right?" I asked her. She nodded, being weirdly silent about everything. "What's wrong?"  
"I'm playing hide and seek with Bee." She whispered. "I know you wouldn't hurt any bot, but that bot for my memory…looked so much like you."  
I smiled and was about to say thank you when a yellow blur ran into the room. "Ha! Found you! What a weak hiding spot…" Starlit stuck her glossa out at him and he did the same back.  
I rolled my optics at their antics. It seemed everything was alright for the time being. I just hoped it would remain that way and nothing bad would happen.  
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Somewhere in Space:  
The ship cabin was all dark, save for one computer being used. The bots colors were obscured and all could be seen was a silhouette from behind and golden servos near the screen. The mech using the computer was hacking into the Elite Guard files.  
"Ah, there you are." It was a picture of Nautica's lifeless form. "My darling, how long has it been since we met? It seems like yesterday." The mech had an evil tone to his voice. "Now…I see my little spark is with the Guard." He typed in a few things and pulled up restricted files. "I see…Jazz. Took her too Earth? Where is that?" More typing. "I see. Took her to Optimus Primes team and…Prowl? Looks like I'll be paying my sparklings a visit." The light from the screen showed his white denta as he smiled evilly and set coordinates to Earth. The ship hummed to life, all lights coming back on. The mech laughed as the lights illuminated his gold and black form, his face obscured by a mask. "Time to reunite our little family."


	9. Chapter 9

Starlit's view:

It had been a few days since Jazz left the base. Prowl went back to being what Bumblebee called a 'mopey, boring ninja bot.' I knew he just missed Jazz.  
I was currently in his room, meditating with him. I had asked him not long after I had mistaken him as our Creator's killer, if he would teach me the ways of metalikato. I hoped it would bring us closer together and strengthen our bond as siblings. Of course he agreed and told me as long as I was willing to learn, he'd teach me. So far he had taught me some basic moves and was currently teaching me to get in touch with my inner self. I didn't get it, but I wasn't giving up.  
Prowl was humming softly as he meditated and I tried to focus mostly on that and the few birds around us. With those focus sounds, I was starting to get it and relaxing when Bumblebee burst in.

"Hey Prowl!" He called out, causing me to jump and Prowl growled softly. "Teletran One picked up a Decepticon signal and Prime wants us to check it out." I looked over to my brother with expectant optics.  
He gave a heavy sigh. "Guess training will have to wait, Starlit." Was all he said before he got up and started walking towards the door. I pouted for a moment before getting up.  
"Can I come with you?" I asked when I caught up with him and Bee in the hall. Prowl looked down at me with a frown.  
"No, you may not. It's too dangerous and you don't have an Alt. mode." I knew he'd say that.  
"But on my last check up, Ratchet said my age was miss read and I'll be a hundred and sixteen tomorrow..." He cut me off.  
"And until tomorrow you don't have an Alt. mode. Starlit I've talked to you about this. Until you get your upgrades and have more training, you cannot leave the base." I rolled my optics and sighed.  
"How am I supposed to get any training if I stay here all day?!" I argued. "I..."  
"I said no. Now stop complaining." Prowl said shortly and walked off, leaving me with Bumblebee.  
"Hey, how about tomorrow you and I go driving." The yellow mech smiled and put a hand on my shoulder. "It'll be fun!"  
I smiled back and nodded. "Ok!" I beamed while he and I walked towards the living room.  
"Alright, Bumblebee, Bulkhead and Prowl will take the west while Ratchet and I go in towards the east. Hopefully we can cut this guy off before he gets too close to the city." Optimus said as we walked in. I looked up to the monitor and saw a flashing purple insignia that Prime had told me was the Decepticon sign. It was in fact heading towards the city, and quite fast.  
"Alright, transform and roll out!" He called out and everyone went on their way except Optimus himself. "Starlit, you can be our eyes here, alright? I heard your argument with Prowl. He is right. It's too dangerous, but you can help by calling us if more trouble appears, ok?" I was elated that I was being included and said yes. "Atta girl." He smiled before driving off to catch up to Ratchet.  
I ran to the front of the monitor and sat down, watching it carefully to make sure noting came up.  
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For hours nothing happened except everyone's signal showed up around the 'Con. I was getting bored and sunk down in the chair a bit. Suddenly, a new signal showed up. It was just a red blip on the screen near the forest. It was there for only a second but I know I saw it. I sat up and told the computer to search the area.  
"No signal found." The computer's voice told me. I told it to scan again but got the same results.  
"Strange..." I told myself and figured it was a glitch, but decided to report to Prime any way. "Optimus, it's Starlit." I said, pressing my fingers to my audio receptor.  
"Optimus...grrr...w-what is it Starlit?" He sounded like he was fighting. A bot in the back ground was laughing at them and taunting them in a German accent.  
"There was a weird blip on the screen near the forest. It's gone now but...I thought I should report it." The connection was silent for a moment.  
"Thank you Star, we'll check it out. Over and out." He said hanging up. I wondered who it was that they were fighting.  
\--------------------------------------------------------------------------  
When they came back they looked a little worst for wear. Apparently Blitswing, the Decepticon, was tracking an All Spark shard signal. Prime had to explain to me what that meant. Apparently not long before I came here, the All Spark was shattered into thousands of pieces by him in order to keep it away from the 'Cons.  
"Yeah, and we've been running around busting our tail pipes trying to recover the pieces before the Decepticons can get their greasy hands on them!" Bumblebee added.  
"Any way, about that signal you said you saw, I scanned the area out there but there seemed to be nothing there." Optimus told me. "Where exactly did you see it?" He motioned for me to show him on the computer screen. I walked over and typed in the coordinates I had written down.  
"Here!" I pointed to where the computer locked on to. But as Prime said, there was nothing. "It was only there for a nano click but I know I saw it." I looked at glanced at everyone but only Prime, Prowl and Bumblebee seemed to believe me.  
"Are you sure it wasn't a glitch? "Bulkhead asked me. "It's not that I don't believe you its just...well...there's nothing there."  
"I know that, but it was right there. I swear!" I wanted them to believe me.  
"I believe you, but where did the signal go?" Prowl asked aloud. Everyone looked just as dumbfounded as me.  
"Let's check it out tomorrow morning. Until then, let's rest up. Today was a long day." Optimus dismissed us to do whatever we wanted.  
"Starlit, shall we?" Prowl smiled softly, signaling he was going to train me a bit more before the day was over. I smiled and followed him back to his room. For now, I wouldn't worry about the weird red blip.  
\--------------------------------------------------------------------  
I woke up the next morning to Prowl sitting on the edge of my berth.  
"Mmm..." I groaned and rubbed my optics. "What's wrong?" He only did this when I was sick or if he was worried about something.  
"Nothing." He smiled and held out his hand. "Come on, the little bird you helped is ready to be set free." I took his hand and allowed him to help me up and lead me to his room.

The bird was chirping in its cage and flapping its wings, wanting be free. I opened the little door and carefully took the bird into my hands. Prowl motioned for me to come over to a low branch to set the little yellow bird on. Once it was on the branch, it looked at us for a second before taking off, chirping and tweeting happily. I smiled as I watched it fly. Deep down, I wished I could fly with it.  
"Starlit." I turned to Prowl who now had his hands behind his back. When he had moved to retrieve whatever it was was beyond me. "Close your optics and hold out your hands." I tilted my head to the side in confusion but did as he told me. I felt something being set inside my stretched out palms. "Ok, you may open your optics." I did and gasped. He had given me the prettiest purple and white flower I had ever seen.  
"It's called an orchid. They're very fragile but are quite pretty. I thought you'd like it." He smile and put an arm around my shoulder, giving me a half hug. "Happy spark day." He said and kissed my helm. I set the little potted plant on the ground and hugged him fully, nearly knocking him down.  
"Thank you, Prowl. I love it!" I was very happy that Prowl cared enough to remember what today was. It was even more special to me because I didn't remember ever celebrating a spark day.  
"You're very welcome." He said softly and hugged me back.  
Prowl then told me the others were waiting in the living room for me and he wasn't kidding. Everyone, including Sari, was there and they had hung a banner with crudely paining letters that spelled 'Happy Spark Day!' I beamed.  
"Happy Spark Day!" Everyone, but Sari who had said Birthday, cheered.  
"Thank you!" I was so excited. Today I turned one hundred and sixteen, which on Cybertron meant you got your Alt. mode.  
\----------------------------------------------------------------  
We had celebrated almost all day with games, music and towards the end, presents and something called cake. Sari and Bee attempted to make an energon and oil cake. It was ok; it was the thought that counted. The presents were awesome! Bee gave me purple fuzzy dice that I had no idea what to do with. He said they hung from your review mirror but I didn't know if I had one yet. Bulkhead gave me one of his nature paintings. It was blobby pink flowers but I could tell he put a lot of effort into it, and contrary to what Bee said, I actually liked it. Ratchet gave me a starter tool set since I had shown an interest in making little gadgets. That and the orchid were my favorites. Optimus surprisingly gave me a really nice gift. He got me authorized to use weapons early, as long as I was under supervision, Ratchet overrode my safety protocol and allowed me to use a pair of swords I had embedded in my wrists. Ok, maybe that was my favorite. I thanked him so many times he got tired of it and told me to just be careful. Sari's gift was another potted flower, a rose. It was yellow, the color of friendship she told me. Alright, all the presents were great! I can't decide on a favorite.  
It had been a great day and when the party was winding down, Ratchet came back out from the medical bay, where he had disappeared to for a while, and announced he was ready for me. It took me a moment to understand what he meant, but when I got it I beamed.  
"Ready for what?" Sari asked.  
"For her Alt. mode upgrade of course!" The old medi-bot barked and lead the way. Prowl motioned for me to go first.  
\------------------------------------------------------------------  
Once in the medical bay, I saw what looked like a giant booth. I wasn't sure what it was and looked to Ratchet.  
"Step on in kid. This thing will scan you and down load the upgrade. Teletran One is in the sky waiting to scan a vehicle mode depending on your build." I swallowed hard at his words. I wanted to ask if it hurt but decided against it and stepped inside.  
The door slid shut and a blue light shined down on me, blinding me for a moment.  
"Scanning..." A little voice said. "Upgrade available. Please hold out arm." I did and a device came out and plugged itself into a small port in my wrist.  
"Ow!" I flinched and felt a surge go through me. I felt and heard parts of my body moving and shifting. I felt a little weird when the device popped out.  
"Upgrade complete. Prepare for Alt. mode download." The voice said again. The blue light came from all directions this time and I felt a tingling sensation go through me. "Alt. mode downloaded. Process complete." The door opened with a small cloud of mist. I stepped out and everyone gasped.  
I looked at them, confused. "What?"  
"You...look..." Sari trailed off.  
"Awesome!" Bee finished  
Ratchet pointed behind me to a mirror. "Take a look kid." I turned and gasped myself.  
I looked very similar to Prowl. I even had boosters like him! The difference between us was I had a very feminine body shape, my face was more heart shaped and my coloring was much different. Where he was beige I was white, where he was black I was aqua and where he was gold I was purple. I also did not have a visor so my green optic showed while his blue ones were hidden. As I had said, my body was now very femme and no longer boxy. My chest plating was a more triangular shape now, my waist was hour glass shaped and...my aft was rounded out. I blushed a bit as I noticed that. I was also now tall enough that the top of my helm came to Prowl's visor. This was now my max height and I wouldn't grow any more. I was a bit disappointed but at least I was taller than Bee, but not by much.  
"Wow! So what's your new form?!"Sari asked. The others seemed to want to ask the same thing.  
I shrugged. "I'm not sure." I said turning back around to them.  
"Well, try it out kid!" Ratchet smiled. I smiled back and gave it a shot. It didn't hurt at all, just felt weird the first time.  
"You're a motorcycle too!?" Bulkhead gasped. I looked back in the mirror and saw I was in fact a motorcycle. My wheels were a light grey and my front had the same triangular shape my chest plating had.  
"Cool!" I revved a bit in excitement.  
"Alright now, none of that in here." Ratchet glared.  
"Sorry." I said and transformed back. "Guess I got excited." I scratched the back of my helm.  
"Come on! Let's try it out! You gotta drive!" Bumblebee motioned for me to follow as he and Sari ran out towards the front of the base. I happily followed, the others no far behind me.  
\------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Bumblebee transformed quickly and speed around the old parking lot.  
"Come on Starlit! Let's take your wheels for a test drive!" He revved.  
I laughed and transformed. I drove around the parking lot with him, all be it a little slower than him.  
"Take it easy Starlit." Prowl said as he transformed and drove around towards me. "You don't have to be good at it from the start. No matter what Bee says." I smiled at my brother, even if he couldn't see it and let my thanks flow through our bond.  
"Hey! I never said she had to be!" Bee shouted, made a U-turn and speed towards us, stopping just inches from me making me back up and tip onto Prowl. He nudged me a bit to help me back up.  
"Cut it out Bumblebee! I don't want to have to bang dents out of her already!" Ratchet yelled at the yellow car. Sari was by the medic's feet.  
"Yeah Bee, don't scare her!" She crossed her arms.  
"Oh, I won't." He huffed and backed off. "Come on! Let get on the road!" He opened his door to let Sari in, who gleefully jumped in, before he speed off down the road. "Last one around the block has a rusted axel!"  
I looked at Prowl to gauge what to do. He sighed.  
"I'll be right behind you, just...be careful." He gave me a small push from behind, encouraging me to go. I revved and speed off as fast as I dared, which was apparently fast, because I heard Ratchet curse under his breath as I turned and chased after Bee.  
\------------------------------------------------------------------------  
We must have raced around for at least an hour. I was getting the hang of it finally. Prowl taught me about turn signals over our com-links and what stop signs and stop lights were and what color meant what. Eventually he deemed it ok for us to go into the city and the whole group of us were out driving down town. Bumblebee was happily racing with me around the empty side streets. I was laughing and giving chase. The other stayed a ways behind to give us some room.  
"Woooohooooooo!" Sari cheered from the open windows of Bee's car form. I speed up and had finally caught up when something flew through the air.  
"Woh!" Bee hit the brakes and I did not long after him, both of us screeching to a halt. "What was that!?"  
I looked around the sky but saw nothing. "I'm not sure..." the others pulled up to us and looked about too.  
"Bumblebee, take Sari and Starlit home. The rest, fan out." Optimus said, backing up.  
"Aww man..." Sari pouted.  
"Sorry Sari, but there's always next time." Prowl said going to opposite way of Prime.  
"Come on," Bee said sadly. "Let's go home..." He pulled forward and led the way back. I followed silently. Something about that blur was familiar. I couldn't figure it out, but I knew something was very wrong.


	10. Chapter 10

Prowl's View:

I felt Starlit's fear through our bond as she, Bumblebee, and Sari drove off. I wanted to ask her what was wrong but I kind of felt the same way she did. Something was familiar about that blur in the sky. It wasn't a plane so it wasn't Blitzwing again, but it had the shape of a bot. I felt uneasy and followed the direction I thought I saw it go.

I ended up in front of an old warehouse. The building was falling apart worse than the one we lived in. The doors were rusted shut, all the windows were smashed in which caused the wind to blow through it, making an eerie whistling sound that unsettled me. I transformed and silently walked around the building, looking for a way in. Seeing as all the windows were broken, it really wasn't that hard. I jumped up and pulled myself into a higher window so I could look down from above.  
I found a beam that seemed stable enough and crept along it while scanning the area below. Nothing came up. Deciding it was safe, I jumped down and landed behind some old oil barrels. A voice broke my concentration.  
"My, my, have you grown." The voice sent chills down my spine. "How long has it been? 1,000 stellar cycles since you and your creator left me?" He could obviously see me but I couldn't see him just yet.  
"Sideways..." I growled.  
"Now, is that any way to greet your Sire!?" He barked and an oil barrel flew at my helm. I dodged it and kept hiding in the shadows until I could locate him.  
"Sorry, reflex. I'm not used to having casual conversations without a fight." The mech hidden in the shadows said with a smirk.  
"Like it would make a difference to me. You were always like this..." I kept moving so he couldn't track where my voice was really coming from. "What have you done to my Creator? And my sister!?" I couldn't hold my anger back.  
"Nautica? My, I haven't seen her in a long time." The smirk in his voice said otherwise.  
"You lying piece of..." I was cut off by a servo grabbing my throat and holding me up in the air. He had somehow gotten behind me.  
"Such words, my little spark. I should teach you not to talk to your superiors in such a way!" He threw me against the wall, hard enough to make my head spin. "This isn't how I wanted our reunion to go, Prowl. Come on, let's start over. It's nice to see you again."  
I growled as the tall gold and black mech sauntered towards me. I got up and leapt up on the beams and into the shadows again.  
I heard him groan. "Prowl, come down, I want to talk."  
"Fine, tell me what happened to our Creator!" I said, setting up a hologram form of myself in the rafters and moved to hide again.  
He sighed. "You want to know? Fine. After she left me, I couldn't live. I missed you two. When I finally found you two, you had gone and ran off. Do you know how distort Nautica was? I saw her cry every night. " So he had been watching her all these stellar cycles. "Stellar cycles passed and I finally couldn't just let her be so alone. So I showed myself to her in an ally. She wasn't keen on seeing me but I...persuaded her." I growled. So that's how Starlit was conceived. "She ran off again after that. I found her two stellar cycles later. It seems our little encounter had given a cure to her loneliness. The little femme was so cute. Nautica saw me and ran off into the crowd. I haven't seen her for about a hundred and fourteen stellar cycles."  
The 'about' part bothered me. "And then?" I projected my voice from the hologram.  
"I did find them once again. But I think you know what happened. Things didn't...go according to plan. She fought me. All I wanted was to see my sparkling. It was truly an accident."  
"You accidentally beat her and then shot her?" My denta were clenched in anger.  
"She...made my gun go off. Starlit had revealed herself at that point. She ran and jumped out the window. But not before I managed to place a small device to track her on her helm. Unfortunately the stupid guard took it off when they got a hold of her and I lost her again. I do hope they removed it correctly. If not, it could corrupt part of her memory."

That explained everything. Why Starlit didn't want to talk to Jazz at first, and more importantly why she was missing part of her memory.  
"I'll take your silence as a no. Is Starlit alright?"  
"Don't you dare say her name or pretend to care for her..." I revved. "You don't know anything about her."  
"And you didn't until two months ago." He said right behind me. "Please Prowl, where do you think you get your hologram powers from." His grin reflected off of the metal beam in front of me. I spun and tried to block his attack but he knocked me off balance and had me falling towards the ground. However, instead of letting me fall, he caught me by the servo.  
"Careful, you'll fall." His tone was teasing. I swung myself, kicking off of the bottom of the support beam and causing him and me to tumble towards the ground. I landed on him and pulled out one of my throwing stars, but he had turned himself into my creator. I had forgotten he could do that. So it really was him who had done it.  
"Please Prowl, don't do this!" He had even copied her voice. It caused me to hesitate which proved to be a horrible mistake. He flipped me, pinned me and changed back in to the evil red opticed mech that had the unfortunate title of being Starlit and my Sire.  
"Pathetic. I though the ninja training would have thought you to see through deception. Guess not." He raised a fist but hauled when a voice called from outside.  
"Prowl!" Optimus' voice rang out. "Prowl, are you in there?" The door was quickly cut to bits by his ax.  
Sideways turned back to me and sighed. "Until next time, my little spark." He sneered and kissed my chevron before disappearing into the dark. I sat up and wiped off the spot he had kissed me. I felt dirty and wanted nothing more than to go home and wash off.  
"Prowl?!" I saw a light shine in and settled on me. "What are you doing on the ground? I thought I heard another voice. Who else is here?" He asked me as he helped me up.  
"Let's...go back to the base. I have something I need to tell everyone." It was time I stopped hiding my origin and fest up.  
\-----------------------------------------------------------------------  
"Hold on, you and Starlit are both part Decepticon?" Bulkhead quipped. I nodded solemnly.  
"And now he is here. After Starlit." I said, looking sadly towards the frightened femme. All of her memories seemed to have come flooding back, because while I was talking, her optics flashed white. She didn't pass out this time at least.  
"What does he want?" Her optics were tearing up.  
"I don't really know..." I really didn't. He didn't give and answer to that, other than wanting to know where she was. Did he want to take her and raise her to be a 'Con like him? Did he want to do unspeakable things to her?  
"Why doesn't he show up on scanners?" Optimus asked from behind me. He was near the computer, possibly scanning for Sideways' signal.  
"He's a master spy. He can change form at will into anybot using his holographic projector. It doesn't surprise me that he can hide his signal too." I felt more fear bleed through the bond. I looked to her and saw she was looking towards the ground. I walked towards her and put a hand on her shoulder. "Starlit, I promise, I won't let him near you." She looked up at me and wiped the tears from her eyes.  
"I know...but what he did...what I saw..." She hiccupped and buried her face into my chest and cried. I just held her there and let her cry. So everything he said was partly true. Starlit had seen our Creator's death but it was nothing like he said. Starlit told me the full story through our bond as she cried.  
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Starlit and Nautica where building a small flying creature. One very similar Starlit later created on Earth. The thing flew for a bit and both femmies were excited. That is until the bug like creature malfunctioned, sparked and fell to the ground. Starlit sighed sadly and Nautica frowned.  
"Oh well. We'll get it eventually! Come on, who wants energon sweets!" Nautica smiled at her sparkling. Starlit enthusiastically put her hand up.  
"Me, me!" She laughed. Nautica got up and ran to the kitchen.   
"Alright, you get the energon out of the cooling chamber and I'll get the rest!" The purple and yellow femme said as the youngling shot past her.   
"Got it, Creator!" The youngling said, holding up two medium sized cubes. "What else?"  
"Mixing bowl!" Nautica said pointing to the lower cabinet.   
Starlit got it and set it next to the cube by her Creator.   
"Remember how to do it Star?"  
The youngling nodded. "Spoon full of axel grease, a pinch of oil and..." She thought. "A sprinkle of rust?"  
"You forgot the most important part." The older femme teased.  
"What?"  
Nautica hugged Starlit. "Love!" Starlit laughed.  
"How cheesy Creator."  
"Yeah, yeah..." She brushed her off and added everything Starlit had said into the bowl along with the energon. Starlit mixed it and poured it into a rectangular cooking sheet. "And bake it for thirty clicks."   
Starlit smiled and blinked as Nautica wiped some of the left over batter on to her nose. She laughed and did the same back to her Creator. Both of them laughed but their laughter was cut short by a knock on the door. Nautica shrugged and walked towards the door with Starlit following, and looks out the peep hole. She beamed and opened the door. It was her son, Prowl.   
"Starlit! Come he…" She was cut off when the mech revealed his true face for a nano click.  
"Nautica! How are you?" A black and gold mech with a stolen voice and form that Starlit didn't recognize sneers. "Where is she?"  
"What are you talking about? There is no one here but me, Sideways." She spits as she stands, silently signaling Starlit to hid in the closet. Over their bond, she told Starlit to hide and not to move. The youngling did and kept quiet. Sideways grabs Nautica's arm, and squeezes hard enough to leave dents. "Ah...there isn't any one here!" She grimaces in pain.  
"Don't lie to me!" He throws her against the wall, the air knocked out of her vents. "You may have broken our bond and dampened the bond she has with me but I can still, somewhat, sense her. I know she is here, but not sure where. Now, I'll ask nicely one more time." His denta were clenched with anger.  
"I will never give her to you!" She said through the energon leaking from her mouth. Sideways then pinned her to the ground and started beating her, repeating the same thing over and over.  
"Nautica, reveal her to me now!" He growled as the last punch hit her square in the face, knocking her out for a moment.  
Starlit saw this from the closet and couldn't take it anymore. She pushed the door open and cried out for him to stop. Nautica looked up at her with fear and sorrow as Sideways grinned and stood to go after her.  
"S-Star...r-run!" The purple femme said weakly as she tried to get up. Starlit looked around for a second before taking off towards a window. She felt something hit the back of her neck as she ran.   
She saw a reflection of Sideways in the glass. He rose his gun towards her but her creator got in the way of the shot as she jumped through, landing hard on the ground two stories below. The last thing she heard was Nautica crying out no before a shot rang out. Pain blossomed in Starlit's chest. Her creator's signature was no longer detected and their bond had been shattered.   
Starlit ran. She had no idea where she was going but knew it had to be far away from here. She took the most populated routes but no one paid her any mind. The frantic young femme was ignored as bots went about their daily lives.  
After days of running, she had made it to the out skirts of the city and into what looked like an old battle field. She was so caught up in making sure she wasn't followed, she didn't see the two jets land in front of her.  
"Jetfire and Jetstorm reporting to call!" Two voices rang out. She turned and ran at them, ready to fight.  
"Easy!" The blue one said, easily disarming her and holding her back.   
"We not here to bring you any harm!" The orange bot put his hands up. "You are safe with us. Please, do tell why you sent signal?"  
She didn't do it consciously but she sent out a distress signal. "S-someone wants to kill me!"  
\------------------------------------------------------------------  
The memory faded there. Jazz had filled in most of the blanks from that point. I hadn't realized what she had truly gone through until that moment. I reached up and wiped the tear off my face. My face was wet and I guessed I had been crying more than I had thought; I was too caught up in the memory to notice.  
"Prowl?" Optimus said, concern lacing his voice. I shook my head and told him I'd tell him later.  
"This bot, Sideways, is extremely dangerous. He can change form at will and is very cunning. Please, be very careful if we find him." I said to the others, still holding Starlit as she nodded in agreement.


	11. Chapter 11

Starlit's View:

Prowl had been taking to Jazz on his vid screen he had in his room for a while now. He wanted to talk in private so I wasn't allowed near his room, which meant I wasn't allowed to go to my room since it was across the hall. I wondered if he was telling him about everything that was going on or if he was doing something else. I really hoped it wasn't the latter.  
"Hey, Star?" I turned looked up at Bee from my position on the couch.  
"Yeah?" He had a serious look on his face, which was odd for him.  
"Are you ok?" he asked as he took a seat next to me. "I mean… I'm not sure what all happened but, you've seemed…I don't know…distracted?" He wasn't wrong. It had been a few days since he showed up and I was worried that he might attack. If he attacked would it be at the base? Would he pick everyone off one by one?  
"Yeah, I'm ok." I sounded unsure, even to myself. "Just…worried." And scared but I left that out. I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked up. I hadn't realized I had looked away from him.  
"Hey, it'll be ok. We're here." He smiled. "And our base is protected by a signal blocker…thing. So he can't find us!" I gave him a weak smile. That helped relieve some of my anxiety, knowing he couldn't find us here. But then again what if he followed one of us here? "Why don't we do something fun? Get your mind off of things?" he offered.  
"Like what?" Prowl had put me on lock down and I couldn't leave the base. He was even more concerned than I was. He grew up with Sideways and knew how insane he was, while I only saw it briefly.  
"We…oh wait no…Oh! No that involves leaving too…" Bee though out loud. I suppressed a laugh at how confused he looked. "I got it! We…" I cut him off.  
"I have a better idea." I smirked and got up, running towards Prowl's room.  
"Hey! Wait up!" Bee said running after me.  
\----------------------------------------------------------------------  
I pressed my back up against the wall where Prowl's door was. I couldn't open the door without it making noise though.  
"I got this." Bee whispered and tried to lift the door, only to fall on his aft. "Ok, maybe I don't…" I sighed and looked up towards a broken window.  
"Up there!" I said jumping up and using my boosters to climb through it.  
"What about me?!" Bumblebee said from below.  
"Uhh…stay here and stand guard!" I motioned for him to keep it down as I ran towards the tree sticking out of the roof.  
\----------------------------------------------------------------------  
Once I got to it, I looked down to see Prowl but he was luckily facing the screen and didn't see me. I jumped to the first branch and snuck over to the trunk to give myself a better cover as I climbed down the tree. It wasn't easy to do. I had to make sure I grabbed the right branches and step on the right ones so they didn't break, but I also had to make sure I didn't make any noise. Considering, I was doing pretty well. I made it to the ground with minimal damage to the tree and hid behind the trunk, my back pressed to the bark.  
"I hear ya Prowler. Listen, OP and the rest of us are actually comin' back here real soon. I…can't say why, but it involves a fugitive." I heard Jazz say. In my excitement, I gasp. I quickly covered my mouth and inwardly groaned.  
"Starlit, come out all ready. I heard you in the tree." Prowl sighed. I blushed in embarrassment and stepped out.  
"Sorry…" I said, scratching the back of my helm nervously.  
"Hey Sta'! Wow! Look at you! You're all grown up!" Jazz smiled from the screen.  
"Hi Jazz!" I smiled back at him. I always wondered how Jazz was always so chipper.  
"Hey kiddo. So, I'm guessing ya heard the news. We shou'd be there by the next moon cycle."  
"Great! I can't…" I was cut off by a noise in the background where Jazz was.  
"Who you talking to mister Jazz sir?" a voice asked.  
"Oh! It's cycle motor and…" Jetfire emerged behind Jazz along with his brother. "Cycle motor femmie?"  
"That's Sta'." Jazz laughed at the twins.  
"No!" Jetstrom said getting closer. "She much prettier than the last time we saw her!" he beamed.  
"And she also cycle motor!" Jetfire beamed as well. "Can't wait to be seeing you!" Both of them waved. I laughed and waved back.  
"I can't wait to see you two either!"  
"Jazz! What the slag are you doing?! Get back up to the control room!" Sentinel's voice rang out.  
"Sorry everyone. Looks like we gotta cut this short. We'll see you soon ok?" Jazz waved as the twins booked it out of there, most likely towards the control room.  
"We look forward to it." Prowl smiled softly.  
"Love you Prowler." Jazz gave a bright smile before cutting the signal.  
"Prowler?" I stifled a laugh. Prowl glared.  
"Don't...repeat that to anyone." He sighed and walked towards the door.  
"Whatever you say…Prowler." I laughed as he shot me another glare.  
\----------------------------------------------------------  
As I walked out I was nearly flattened by Bumblebee.  
"You left me here!" he was angry. "Why did you do that?!"  
"You…couldn't jump up onto the roof." I shrugged, but that wasn't enough for Bee.  
"Oh come on! You could have lifted us both up there!" He argued.  
"I…" Prowl cut me off.  
"Neither of you were supposed to be near here. As far as I can see, you both should be punished for disobeying my request." The ninja bot was smiling.  
"What?! It was her idea! Why should I have to be dragged into it?!" Bumblebee whined. I was going to interject when Ratchet walked into the hall way.  
"Will you two put a clamp in it?! Starlit! Your due for a check up and ready for your weapon upgrade. Get in here!" I pointed towards the med bay. I nodded and quickly ran over to him. I didn't want to keep the grumpy old bot waiting.  
\-----------------------------------------------------------------  
He sat me down on the table again and opened up a panel on my wrist. I watched as a panel on his wrist opened up and a cord plugged itself into a small port on my wrist. I felt a weird tingling sensation in both my arms, right above my wrists and a little into my forearms.  
"There, that should do it." He said, unplugging the cord and closing my wrist back up. "Try it out."  
I had no idea what he meant, but I lifted my arms and watched in fascination as twin swords, one on each forearm, popped out. They reminded me of Sari's swords she had on her arms. In fact, they were just like hers, only white and blue, much bigger and attached.  
"Woh!" I smiled and moved them a bit.  
"Be careful now! You are only to use them under super vision seeing as you are not technically old enough. I'm surprised Prime even wanted you to be put on the fast track…" the old medi-bot trailed off.  
"These are soooo cool! Thank you Ratchet!" I retracted them before hugging him and running off to show Bee and Prowl.  
"You're welcome, kid." I heard him say softly as I ran out the door.  
\---------------------------------------------------------------  
"Bee! Look what I can…" I stopped right before I ran into Bulkhead. "What's going on?" I said, peering around the big green bot.  
"Something popped up on the vis screen. We think it might be Wasp." He answered as he turned to me.  
"Wasp?" I asked. "Who…"  
"He's a fugitive that escaped from prison. He was put there under false pretenses. "Optimus answered my question before I even got the chance to ask.  
"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get going!" Ratchet said as he came into the room.  
"Alright, Bumblebee and Starlit, stay here. The rest of us, transform and roll out!" Prime said. "Oh, and Bumblebee, watch the computer monitors ok?"  
\-----------------------------------------------------------------  
"Bumblebee, Prime said to watch those monitors." I said, pointing to the screens behind us.  
"No, he said watch the monitor. He didn't say which one." I sighed at the yellow bot. He could be so dense.  
"Whatever…I'm going to go grab something from my room. I'll be right back." He didn't say anything, just kind of waved his hand in acknowledgement.  
I was just down the hall a little ways when the power went out. Oh frag… I didn't like the dark all too much. I heard Bee say something and was going to call out as the emergency lights came on and I heard a second voice. My spark started racing. I pinged Prowl's com link, trying to tell him that something was up as I pressed myself against the wall to listen. The rain was interfering too much though and nothing came through but static. Bee and this bot were talking but I was too far away to make out what was being said.  
Move! You have to help him! I tried to get myself to move but fear had me trapped in its claws. I heard Bumblebee cry out. This got me to break the spell and I ran into the other room, right as the power came on.  
"Bumblebee!" I activated my swords and ran into the living room. Bee was standing over a green bot about the same size as him.  
"Bumblebot has captured Wasp." Bee said as he turned to me. His mask was down and his optic color looked off. "I…didn't hear you come in. Where are the others?" Something was off.  
"They're…coming back." I lied, I had no idea when they were coming back.  
"Good! Wasp is out for now, but…he could come back online any time…" he paused as if he didn't know my name.  
"You ok?" I wasn't putting my swords back just yet.  
"Bumble…I mean, I am fine…" again with the pause.  
"Starlit." I motioned to myself. "Did Wasp hit you in the head?"

Before he could say anything, the rest of the team showed up. Thank Primus...  
"You alright?!" Prowl said, rushing towards me. "Were you hurt?"  
"No, I'm fine, but…." I looked at Bumblebee.  
"Bumblebot captured Wasp." I glared at him. He was acting so weird but I couldn't tell what was wrong. Wasp choose that moment to wake up. I stepped back a bit.  
"It's ok Starlit, we got it. You can put your swords away." Optimus said from near Wasp.  
Wasp started to claim that he was really Bumblebee.  
"Starlit! You know it's me right?!" The green bot turned to me. I blinked in surprise. His optics were blue...the same blue and Bee's. But...it couldn't be, could it?  
"I-I don't know..." I answered and the look of hurt in his optics said I had said the wrong thing.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------  
"Wasp" had gotten away and "Bee" and I were once again stuck together; only this time I wasn't so sure that this was Bee.  
"I'm…gonna go meditate. You stay here ok?" I told the strange Bee as I left the room. He said nothing. I walked a little ways down the hall before tip toeing back and hid in the shadows. For a while he didn't do much but fail at a video game. That was very un-Bee like. He got up and walked around but stopped at the computer center.  
"If Wasp going to be Bumblebot, Wasp must know what Bumblebot knows." My optics widened at this realization. I formed my swords once more but stayed hidden, watching his every move.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------  
They finally came back a while later with the green bot, who I knew was the real Bumblebee, and Jazz and the rest of his team.  
"Guys!" I called out from my hiding place and ran towards them.  
"Swords?! What the slag is she doing with weapons?! She's not…" Sentinel started.  
"It's cool SP. I got the note from Ultra Magnus to allow OP to give Starlit permission. She's a ninja bot in training, ya dig?" Jazz calmed the angry blue and orange bot down.  
"I am to be liking them." Jetfire smiled at me.  
"As am I!" Jetstorm agreed.  
"Mute it! We're here to find out who the real Wasp is." The arrogant bot yelled. I wanted to tell them I knew, but was silenced when the twins came to me and stood by to watch the video game match. Bulkhead had the idea that who ever won was the real Bee.

While we waited, the fake jumped up, grabbed the real Bee and threatened his life. I felt my spark drop and had this horrible feeling settle itself in my tanks. I had felt this only once before, right before my creator was killed.  
Wasp shot the lights out and ran off. Everyone chased after him and out into the rain. Bulkhead pounced on what he thought was Wasp and started beating the slag out of him.  
"Ow! Bulkhead…Ow! Stop! It's me! Bumblebee!" the yellow mech cried.  
"Oops…sorry little buddy." He said getting off of him and helping Bee up. I was relieved that Bee was ok and ran to him, deactivating my swords again and hugging him. I have no idea what come over me and possessed me to do it.  
"H-hey…" he stumbled back a bit but hugged me back. "I'm ok, really." He said softly. I let go, blushing softly after realizing what that must have looked like to everyone else.  
"I…just wanted to make sure." I smiled.  
\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Later that night, I was lying in my berth and thinking about what had happened. Why did I run to Bumblebee like that? Why was I so scared of him being captured? I rolled over to my side, continuing to think. Did I like Bumblebee? I felt my face plates heat up at that thought. No way! He's annoying and frustrating and…cute? I gasped as my thoughts went there. I covered my face plates and groaned. How could this happen? He was my friend for spark sake!


	12. Chapter 12

Starlit's View:

I was currently standing on one foot, with my hands folded in front of me, on top of one of the narrow beams up above the living room. Prowl was punishing me. It was so unfair! He shouldn't be mad at me since I stood up for him! Honestly, it should be Sentinel being punished. I had overheard him bad talking the team to the jet twins. The twins didn't seem to care or were just not listening. I wasn't going to let it get to me, since he did it all the time, but then he started talking about Prowl. He was saying things like, "That ninja reject shouldn't even be allowed to be called a ninja! I haven't seen him do anything close to what Jazz can do. He's pathetic!" and then..."He shouldn't even be allowed to train anyone, especially that glitched out fembot."  
I was so angry. I had seen both Jazz and Prowl in action and even Jazz had said he thought Prowl could surpass him. And I was not glitched! I had been hacked...kind of. Again I tried to ignore it but he went on to say that he wasn't fit to be my care taker. I ripped into that egotistical aft and would have said more if Jazz hadn't come between us. It was the only time I had seen the slag head of a Prime stay silent. When Jazz had pulled me away and we got far enough away to be out of audio range, he started laughing.  
"That was the funniest thing I have ever seen! Mech, I've neva seen SP so surprised!" He told me and put a hand on my shoulder. "But, I do have to report this to OP. Sadly, talkin' back to a superior like that isn't looked on in a good light, dig?"  
I had told him he was talking bad about the team and my brother, but Jazz told me he did that to everyone. When I asked Jazz how he ignored it, he said he tuned out most of what he said. He admitted he downloaded some Earth music and played it in his audios when the Prime was ranting.

And now, here I was, being punished by the person I stood up for. Optimus had even chuckled at everything I had said! Apparently Prowl didn't find it all that funny.  
At one point while I was up here, the twins where sitting on the beam behind me, laughing at what I had said to the Prime.

"I never seen a bot with the plating to talking back to Sentinel Prime sir! Have you brother?" Jetfire had said.  
"No, have not!" Jetstorm laughed. "Nor have I seen as femme a pretty…" he had whispered to his twin, but I had heard it. I ducked my head down to hide my blush. They were, what Sari had called, hitting on me.  
"Is true, but we talk later about it, brother." Jetfire had whispered back.  
Both had been going back and forth for a while before Jazz had shooed them away. I was enjoying their company, even if I couldn't talk to them.  
\----------------------------------------------------------------------  
"Hey Star! You done trying to be like Prowl?" Bumblebee called from below about twenty cycles later. I sighed.  
"I still have two more cycles to go…" I grumbled, hoping Prowl hadn't heard.  
"Eh, who's gonna know. It's only two cycles!" He had a point. Prowl wasn't here right now. The only one currently enforcing it was Bulkhead, but he had fallen into a stasis nap a while ago. I shrugged and put my other leg down, relieving some of the tension in my right leg. It felt so good to put it down. Right as I was about to jump down, Bulkhead woke up.  
"Snort…Huh!?" He woke with a start. "Bumblebee! You can't interrupt Starlit right now! She's…uh…being punished." He said standing up and walking over to Bee.  
"Oh come on! She's been up there for mega cycles!" The yellow mech put his hands on his hips.  
"Oh no! She still has…WOooooOOH!" The big guy called out as he tripped over one of the oil cans near the couch. The vibrations caused by his fall caused Bee to fall on his aft and me to lose my balance.  
"WOH!" I cried out as I fell from the beam, landing on Bumblebee and banging my head against his.  
"Oww…" we both groaned as I sat up. I didn't realize I was straddling Bee's legs until I opened my optics. "You ok?" I asked as I rubbed my forhelm. There was totally going to be a dent where we collided.  
"Yeah…Ratchet's gonna have a hay day with us." Bee joked, sitting up from under me, causing me to have to shift. "Uhh…" his face turned a little darker. I was about to ask what was wrong but Prowl choose that moment to come in.  
"What is going on?" He asked and looked down at Bumblebee and me. "Why are you down here already?"  
"It was my fault! I tripped and knocked her down!" Bulkhead shoot up and started bouncing from one foot to the other, shaking the ground again. I sighed at the bots antics and stood up, giving Bee a hand.  
"Thanks." The mini bot smiled as he grabbed my hand. I helped him up but was getting the death glare from Prowl.  
"What?" This caused Bee to turn around and jump back in fear from Prowl's stare.  
"Nothing. I guess you're free. Don't do it again, Starlit." Prowl turned away and walked back to his room.  
"What's with him?" Bulkhead asked us.  
"I have no idea." Bee shrugged and turned back to me. "Want to play Ninja Gladiator?!"  
\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------  
I had to stop playing the video game after two straight megacycles of it. In that time, I had only won maybe twice. It was starting to give me a processor ache with all of the flashing lights.  
"Aw, come on! One more round!" The yellow bot pouted.  
"You said that five rounds ago. I need a break. I'll play later ok?" I waved him off as I stood and went towards my room. I needed to check on my flowers. The orchid Prowl had given me wasn't doing too well and I was trying to figure out how to get it back to health.  
Along the way, I suddenly got a strange pain in my abdomen that lasted only a second, but was enough to make me lean against the wall. I thought maybe it was because I needed some energon. I'd had some before my outburst with Sentinel, but that was earlier this morning. I'd get some after I checked my flowers.

However while I checked the soil of my plants, it happened again, but this time there was a weird tingling sensation that shot down to my legs. I leaned against the windowsill and decided to go see Ratchet.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
I was finding myself on this medical table more often than not. Ratchet was scanning me with the scanner in his finger.  
"Well, it looks like your interfacing units are coming online." He said when he got to my abdominal area. I felt my face plates heat up at the doc bots words.  
"My…what?" I knew a little bit about what they were, but wasn't all that familiar with it.  
"Oh boy. I haven't given one of these lessons in stellar cycles…" he trailed off before he explained everything. And I mean everything. Even things I did not want to know! Apparently femmes and some mechs, called carrier mechs, can carry these things called protoforms. The way these are made…I don't think I should repeat, but it involves a mechs spike and a carrier mechs or femme's interface port, which is also called a valve, and a spark bond of some sort. I briefly wondered if anyone on the team was a carrier mech but shook that thought away.

"Now, with yours just coming online, your body doesn't know what its feeling. It's being registered as pain, but I can tell you that it is not pain, it's actually pleasure." He was sitting on an old metal stool in front of me at this point. "When they come fully online, you will send out a signal, notifying bots nearby that you are old enough to participate in this kind of activity. You may also have the…urge to find somebot yourself. This is completely normal. Most bots will ignore this signal and urge, however we do have to worry about the 'Cons receiving it."  
"Wait…anybot can get this signal?" I was worried about one Decepticon in particular.  
"Yes, but it does not reveal your location, luckily." He smiled softly. "No need to worry about that. Now, any further questions?" I shook my head. "Good, now, get out of here!" he didn't sound angry. It was a more of 'get out of here and don't worry too much.'  
\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
It wasn't until later that night, after everyone including me had gone to bed, that I felt more of the pain…err…pleasure. It was driving me up the wall! I kept rolling from side to side, hoping one positon would relieve it. It didn't work. In fact, all my moving had just made it even worst! I groaned in frustration, but it came out weird. I didn't recognize what the sound I had made was. Ratchet told me that I'd only suffer this once in my life and never have this overwhelming feeling. However every few stellar cycles I would go though heat cycle, which would be similar but not as intense...I thanked Primus for that. I decided maybe a shower would help and got up.  
\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
I stepped into the shower and sighed happily as the water hit my form. It seemed to calm me and my systems down. I choose cold water since my systems were running hot and it was working quite well. I put my forhelm against the tiles and let the water run down my back. I have no idea how long I was in there and didn't realize how relaxed I'd become, so when I heard someone else enter the racks I jumped. Apparently in my hast, I had forgotten to lock the door. Oh well, there was more than one shower in here.

"Someone there?" I heard Bee's wary voice call out. I couldn't blame him, especially after the whole Wasp incident.  
"It's just me." I didn't mean to sound sad but it kinda came out that way.  
"Oh…" He seemed to be relived. "You ok?" I heard him coming towards me. I panicked a bit.  
"Fine! I'm fine…." I turned my head too look towards the opening of the wash racks, where his shadow loomed. He didn't stop his movements though and soon he stood in the door way. For humans it would have been strange to walk in on someone showering; for Cybertronians however it wasn't uncommon. In fact, Prowl and I often showered together after a training session. I've even showered with the yellow mech that was in here currently. We had had a sponge war that ended when Optimus came in and got a sponge to the face.  
So that being said, why did I feel weird with Bumblebee in here now? Stupid interface systems!   
"Care if I join? I didn't wash earlier 'cause the old bot was in here." I think he was referring to Ratchet. All the bots, except for Sari and me, were older then him.  
"Um, sure." I looked away from him to hide my heating face plates.  
"You sure you're ok?" he said turning on the shower next to mine. "You're acting a little weird."  
"I am not!" I glared at him.  
"Ok, ok. Geez, you're starting to sound like Ratchet." I rolled my optics and started washing up. The old medic had said my emotional processor would be working over time during this time as well. That would explain my outburst with Sentinel earlier and my outburst now.  
"Sorry…I didn't mean to yell." Now my voice sounded like I was about to cry! Oh come on! This was soooo not my day.  
"Hey, it's fine. Sorry I called you an old mech." He teased. I giggled, which was odd for me to do. "Where did you end up? I haven't seen you since this afternoon?"  
What was I gonna tell him? 'Oh I learned my interface systems just came online. No biggie, how was your day?' No way!  
"I had…to take care of somethings." I even heard the lie in that! Bee was so not going to drop this.  
"O…k? What were you really doing?" I noticed he had stopped washing himself and had all of his attention on me.  
Right before I decided to fess up, I heard a pinging resonate inside of my head. Oh great…of all times… I thought to myself. That must have been the signal Ratchet was talking about. He said it might sound louder to me, but to everyone else it wouldn't be more than a soft, almost inaudible static sound.  
"What was that?!" Bee looked around, like someone was about to attack. Apparently he was still on high alert. Fraggin' Wasp…you've made my life a living pit right now…  
"What?" I lied.  
"That static-y noise. You didn't hear it?" He looked over to me. I shook my head, biting the inside of my cheek. Prowl had picked up on me doing this when I lied. I wondered if Bumblebee would too. "How did you not hear it!?" Apparently not.  
"Shh!" I stepped over and covered his mouth. "You want to wake the whole base?!" I quickly let go of him and looked away again. This time, there was no way he didn't see my face plating heat up.  
"What is with you?! Don't you remember Jazz made it sound proof after everyone complained about his singing?" Right, I had forgotten that. He was a great singer, but no one appreciated it at four in the morning. "And…why are you blushing?" he sounded like he was going to say something else before noticing my face. "Wait…that static…it was from you?!" He stepped back away from me. Guess he wasn't as dumb as everyone said.  
"I-I...well…yeah…" I felt my face plates heat up more. So much for calming down and cooling my systems.  
"Well…that explains a lot." He said, fidgeting and shifting his weight from on foot to the other. "Sooo…that's what was going on?"  
"Uh huh…" I was so uncomfortable talking about this with my friend. At least he knew so I didn't have to explain everything.  
"Hey, don't be embarrassed by it. We all went through it." Bee shrugged and turned back to the shower head, but not before I noticed he was blushing too.  
Maybe my feelings weren't so one sided.  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
I woke up to an angry Prowl looming over me.  
"Gah!" I jumped up. "Don't do that!" I yelled at him. Big mistake on my part, but my emotional center still wasn't functioning right. And wouldn't for a week.  
"What were you and Bumblebee doing in the wash racks last night?" He had a 'no nonsense' tone.  
"We just washed up. That's all." I shrugged. "Why?"  
"Your interface systems came online." I was surprised by his boldness. I didn't realize he was so blunt about things.  
"Well…yeah. So?" I knew my face was a darkening. "How did you know?"  
"I heard the static. That and Ratchet told me." So much for patient confidentiality. "You are not to be alone with Bumblebee until your systems calm down." I swear I heard Prowl's engine rev a bit when he said the yellow bots name.  
"Why? He didn't try…"  
"Starlit, please. Don't argue with me. I'm trying to protect you."  
"From what?! Bumblebee isn't a bad bot Prowl! Primus if he had tried anything, don't think I would have fought back?! I'm not as weak as you think! I can take care of myself!" By the end, my engine was revving. I shoved past him and stomped out of my room. I wanted nothing to do with my brother right now.  
\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Sari was over and playing games with the yellow mini bot while the twins cheered them on from behind the couch. It was some racing game.  
"Go Sari!" Jetfire cheered.  
"Go Bumblerbee!" Jetstorm cheered with his brother.  
I walked over towards them and stood between the two jets. "Who's winning?" I asked as a banana peel tripped Sari up.  
"Oh come on! That's cheating!" the techno-organic whined.  
"Nu-uh! Bowser did it to me." Bee smirked. Oh so that's what game it was, Mario Cart.  
"Who's playing winner?" I asked.  
"We are!" Both twins grinned.  
"But, it's two player. Well, only because there is only two working controllers" I looked at Bumblebee, who was ignoring me.  
"I'll go first." The orange jet pointed to himself.  
"And I'll play the next winner." Jetstorm waved. "We settled it in the rock, paper, scissors game the human femme taught us."  
I was about to call the third round when I heard Prowl call for me.  
"Frag…tell him you didn't see me!" I whispered to the four of them as I ran towards the door. I transformed when I was at the door and speed out of the base. I wasn't going to go far, but just enough to hide from my brother.  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Prowl's view:

I walked out, expecting to see Starlit. I had just heard her voice but she wasn't here. Strange.  
"Where did Starlit go?" I crossed my arms, waiting to see who would crack first.  
"She was not here." Jetfire shrugged, not looking away from the screen.  
"Maybe fem cycle motor went to her room?" Jetstorm said from next to his twin.  
"Oh? Am I to assume that you two were talking to yourselves?" my optic ridge raised.  
"Yep." They both said. I sighed and turned to the two on the couch.  
"Sari?" She was a horrible liar.  
"What the twins said." She said way to fast. I walked towards them a bit, which made Bumblebee tense up. He knew I was already angry with him. He didn't know why, however.  
"Bumblebee?" I tried to say his name nicely but it came out as a hiss.  
"I…uh…haven't seen her since last night." He cringed at his poor choice of words.  
"Last night?" The other three questioned. Sari even paused the game.  
"You were with young femme?" The blue twin had a wolfish grin, but I sensed a bit of jealousy in his tone. I growled at the comment and the jet shrunk back. "Right, you're her brother…"  
"Good one!" His orange twin laughed.  
"What were you doing with her?" Sari asked. I was curious if their stories differed.  
"Nothing! We showered! End of story!" The yellow bot was blushing like crazy.  
"You…showered?" Of course Sari didn't understand, since in human customs if two humans showered together in meant something completely different.  
"Yeah. Don't you shower with other humans?"  
"No! Eww! Gross!"  
"Enough. I still want my question answered." I pinched the bridge of my nose.  
"We gave you the answer." Jetfire quipped.  
"She no here." His twin finished for him.

I was at the end of my patience with them and was about to snap when Jazz called.  
"Prowler, you know your sister is driving about don't cha?" His smooth voice sounded through my com link.  
"No, I was not aware she left the base." I glared at the bots in front of me.  
"Wait, she left the base?!" Bumblebee jumped up.  
"Was that not ok?" The twins asked.  
"No! She's in real danger out there! Sideways…" I held my hand up to silence the yellow mech.  
"Jazz, cut her off and make sure she's ok. We're on our way!" I said transforming and racing out of the base. Bumblebee, Sari and the Twins were right behind me.  
"Already on it! I'll get to her before you. She's closest to our ship." Jazz said before ending the comm.  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------  
Starlit's View:

I had gone a bit farther than I thought, but I was pretty close to Elite Guard's ship; maybe a block or so away. I sighed and decided maybe I should go back.  
"Hey there sweet spark!" I heard someone say from behind me. I adjusted my mirrors and saw it was Jazz in his alt. form.  
"Hey, Jazz!" I transformed not long after he did.  
"What're you doin' out here? You shouldn't be out here alone." He said walking towards me.  
"I know…but, Prowl was being over barring an'...I couldn't take it anymore! It's…it's suffocating!" I sighed, finally letting it out.  
"Hey, hey. It's al'ight. I know he seems a bit over barrin' but he's just trying to protect ya." Jazz said, putting a hand on my shoulder.  
"I know…but…ugh!" I put my hands on my face as he pulled me into a hug. "He said I can't be near Bumblebee…." I mumbled into his chassis. He laughed.  
"Now why on Cybertron would he do that?" He let me go so he could see my optics.  
"Um…well…" I trusted Jazz. He was like a second older brother to me. "My…um…systems…came online…" It took him only a nano click to get it.  
"Oh. I see. Bee try something?" His tone held a darkness to it, one I had never heard before.  
"No! We were just in the wash racks at the same time. He would never do that…" I trailed off.  
"I didn't think he would either. Bee's a good mech." Jazz smiled, the darkness gone. "I think Prowl just…doesn't like him too much."  
"You can say that again…" I laughed.

"How touching…" a deep voice said from behind me. Jazz looked up as I turned. He was in the shadows but his silhouette…I gasped and stepped back.  
"Y-you…"  
"Long time no see my sparkling." The mech in the shadows stepped into the evening light; his gold plating reflecting the last traces of the sun. "How have you been?"  
"Jazz…" My voice came out barely above whisper.  
"I know…Sideways right?" Jazz said the first part so only I could hear it. "What the pit are you doing here?" He took a step to stand in front of me and took his nunchucks out.  
"Taking back my spark." I felt someone grab me from behind, pull me back aways as their other arm snaked around my neck. The Sideways in front of us disappeared. It was a holoform and the real one now had me!

"Jazz!" I called out as Sideways put his sword, which was like mine, to my throat. I struggled but he put his weight on me, making my legs useless. I had yet to learn how to escape from someone's hold.  
"I'd stay back if I were you." The Decepticon sneered.  
"What kinda Sire are you?! No bot I know threatens their sparks!" Jazz revved.  
"I'm not like most." His arm tightened around my throat, making it hard to take in intakes. I knew Cybertronians couldn't be strangled like humans, but it still hurt. "Now, put your weapons down or…" he inched the sword closer to my vital energon line. I looked at Jazz, silently begging him to do what this mad bot said. I'd seen what he could do if things didn't go his way.  
"'Ight, just calm down." Jazz's voice softened but still had an edge to it as he set his weapons down.  
"Back up!" Sideways barked and Jazz took a few steps back. "Good…" I heard a click and looked to the arm holding me and saw a small device pop out of his upper arm. Something shot out, hitting my neck, and I felt a shock go through my system.  
"Starlit!" I heard Jazz call out. Before I blacked out, I saw Jazz running towards us but a shot rang out.  
Primus…don't let him go offline too!  
\--------------------------------------------------------------------  
Prowl's View:

We arrived to a horrible scene. Jazz's weapons were the first things I saw strewn across the pavement; nearby were drops of energon, each one bigger than the last.  
"Grrr…" I heard a groan nearby and ran towards it. I saw it was Jazz, knelt down, leaning against a wall and leaking energon out of the upper part his left leg.  
"Jazz!" I knelt by him. "Are you alright?!" I helped him push down on the energon line.  
"Sideways…" he ground out.  
"Where is being the femme?!" Jetstorm landed next to me, Jetfire right behind him. Bumblebee was standing back a bit, his stingers activated and ready.  
"He…" Jazz was in pain. It seemed he put up quite a fight but ended up with a near fatal shot. Lucky for him, the major energon line in his leg wasn't severed but had been grazed. "I tried to go after him…he's fast."  
"It's alright. We need to get you to Ratchet."  
"Or Ratchet here. I already called." Bumblebee said coming up to us. "There's no sign of anyone else. He must have ran off."  
"Come on, let me get a better look at you injury." I tried to get the black and white ninja to lift his hand.  
"No! We got bigger problems!" Jazz grabbed my arm to stop me. "Sideways has her! He's got Starlit!"


	13. Chapter 13

Prowl's View:

We were back at the base, frantically trying to find out where Sideways could have gone. No matter how many times we scanned the area where he had picked her up, we couldn't find anything. We had widened the area and even switched to trying to find Starlit's signal, but there was nothing!  
"Prowl, we're trying our best but, without Teletran One…" Optimus tried to get me to stop pacing. "When you met with him, did he give you any idea where he could be?"  
"No…he didn't say anything. He just…was himself." I didn't really want to think about what he had told me. Everything he had said still haunted me.  
"There hasn't even been a blip on the screen!" Bumblebee cried in frustration. I noticed he seemed just as stressed about her being kidnapped as I was.  
"Maybe we could ask Jazz if we can use their scanners?" Bulkhead suggested off handedly.  
"Ask and you shall receive." said black and white ninja bot said as he walked into the room. He was with Ratchet getting his leg repaired. The medi-bot said he was very lucky. A centimeter to the left and he would have bleed out before we had gotten to him.  
"Then let's use it! Come on! We don't have time! Who knows what that Decepticreep is doing to her!" Bee was, as humans say, chomping at the bit to get going.  
"Bumblebee calm down. You're not helping anything." Sari put her hand on the mechs leg. At least someone was trying to calm him.  
"We will, but first, earlier you said something about a blip. Where did Starlit say she saw that signal? The one she called in while we were dealing with Blitzwing." I approached the computer and moved the scanning towards the forest area.  
"About here." Prime said, pointing to a dense part of the forest. "We never found anything though."  
"No, but remember Lockdown? His ship could be disguised, taking a form of a building. Who's to say Sideways' ship can't do the same." I typed a few things and pulled up a map of the same spot a few days before Starlit had seen the blip. "There, just like Lockdown's ship." I looked up at the two maps. The older one showed a small clearing where trees had suddenly appeared.  
"He must be there!" the yellow mech shouted, much too loud for my liking.  
"I'm sure he is. I know I have said it before, but approach him with caution. He's dangerous." I said turning to my teammates. "He will not hold back."  
"An' I can vouch for that. Slagger threatened Sta'lit's life before firin' on me." Jazz was leaning on the railing, keeping most of his weight off of his left leg. I briefly wondered if he should stay behind. He noticed me looking at him. "I know what you're thinkin' Prowl, but I'm not stayin' behind, dig. I want to help out and ge' her back just as badly as every-bot here. Doc bot said I should be fine." There was a piece he was leaving out but I decided to drop it. We needed every able bodied bot.  
"I'm coming too!" Sari said, transforming into her robotic form.  
"No Sari, not this time. Sideways is far too dangerous. You stay here and keep an eye on the monitors." Optimus told the now pouting techno organic. "Autobots, transform and roll out!"  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------  
Starlit's View:

I groaned and put a hand against my helm. Everything hurt slightly from that shock. It did not help that my systems were going insane. I could feel every movement I was making and the berth I was laying on was extremely uncomfortable. Curse this stupid interfacing system slag! But now was not the time to be concerned about it. I needed to figure out where I was and how to get out.  
I sat up, cringing with every move and looked around. I seemed to be in a ship brig. A really run down one that smelled like old oil and rust. The glass that acted as the door was cloudy and you could see the sensor lasers inside from the dust. Outside in the hall looked relatively clean, which meant the brig wasn't used too often. I stood and walked towards the door to see if I could see down the hall when a noise startled me.  
"Sta'?" I turned and saw an injured Jazz.  
"Jazz!" I ran over, ignoring the warnings that flashed in my HUD. "Jazz you're ok! I –I thought he killed you…" I hugged him tightly.  
"Ow…easy…I-I'm fine." He said patting my back, sending more warnings. "You 'ight?" I nodded.  
"He shot you didn't he? Where did he…" Jazz but a finger up to my lips.  
"He missed." I moved back as he stood. I stood with him in case he fell. "What about you? He gave you quite the shock."  
"I'm ok. I think it was only to knock me out." He smiled and put a hand on my shoulder. Something felt off about it though. Normally his touch felt warm and friendly but this…this felt cold. I thought maybe it was just my systems. "Jazz, how are we gonna get out of here?"  
"I'm not sure we can just yet. We'll need a key to get out. We'll get him when he comes to check on us." Ok now his speech pattern was off. Something was up.  
"Jazz…." I stepped back a bit. "Are…you sure you're ok?" His smile faded a bit and he started walking toward me.  
"What are ya talking about? I'm fine." I kept backing away but hit the berth and fell onto my aft. Oh frag… The second I fell, he was on me. "You feel a little warm." He said putting his hand on my cheek. It wasn't in a friendly way.  
"J-Jazz…y-you're acting w-weird." I was trying to act cool but my voice betrayed me.  
"Shh…it's alright." His accent dropped again. He leaned a bit closer to me, far too close to be considered ok. "Relax…" his other hand was suddenly on my upper right leg.  
"S-stop it!" I tried to push him away but he caught my hand.  
"What? You don't like me?" He sneered. I knew then that this was not Jazz. I wanted to get away from this imposter but couldn't. He leaned in towards my audio and whispered what he wanted to do with me. He told me no matter what I did, he was going to be my first.  
"W-what?" I was shaking in fear.  
"You heard me…" the imposter purred in Jazz's stolen voice.  
"NO!" I was able to get my left leg between us and kick out, sending him flying back in to the opposite wall. When he hit, his body flickered, reveling a gold and black mech before going back to Jazz. I quickly stood, trying to activate my blades but found them jammed. I looked down and saw these black bands on my wrists. They weren't stasis cuffs but were obviously the reason I couldn't use my weapons. "Who are you?!" I cried.  
"Guess I can't keep this up." A low voice that wasn't Jazz's sighed, and he changed back to the gold and black mech. "I was trying to get you to hate this…Elite Guard." He hissed. "You're too smart for those tricks though, just like your creator."  
"You…" I glared. "What have you done to Jazz?!"  
"Glitch got away. But that's not what I wanted to talk about."  
"Oh no, you wanted to frag me! Is that want you want from me Sire?" I sneered.  
"No, I was going to knock you out to think you fragged that glitch. I would never harm my spark." He tried to come closer to me.  
"Don't come near me!" I raised my fists.  
"Starlit, don't make me angry." He pinched the bridge of his nose, like Prowl did when he was irritated. Now that I could see him clearly, he looked a lot like Prowl. His peds were square and he was a little bulkier than him but his form and face were like his. The only difference in the face was it was squarer and the visor was red.  
"Or what?!" I challenged. Big mistake. I was up against the wall, held up by my throat. More warnings flashed and the pain nearly knocked me out again.  
"I don't want to hurt you…I came here to…rekindle our relationship." He let me down and took a seat on the berth. "Come here…" he patted a spot next to him. I really wanted to refuse but I was scared he might kill me so against my better judgment, I sat by him.  
"Starlit, I want you to come with me. I want us to be the family I always dreamed of." He said as I sat by him. I tried to stay on the edge but he pulled me closer. "I want my sparks to be by my side, fighting for the cause. Think about it, you, Prowl and me, traveling the universe fighting for the Decepticons."  
Really? After everything that's what he wanted? He was insane if he thought I would join him after what he had done.  
"A-and if I refuse?" Once more my vocal processor betrayed me.  
"Then…you leave me no choice." He stood. As he stood, he let his hand slide down my arm, making me shiver. The air was suddenly heavy and I felt fear creep through my body. "I'll have to reprogram you."  
My optics widened. Reprogram? But that would erase all of my memories! I'd never gain them back. I'd forget my Creator, Prowl, Jazz, the twins and worst…Bumblebee! I thought to myself.  
"No…" I whispered.  
"No?" Sideways looked at me from the corner of his optics. "Does that mean no, you won't join me or no, you will join me."  
"I-I'll never join you." I felt tears building in my optics. I knew my refusal was practically a death sentence, but I would never join this murderer.  
"So be it." His voice went lower and again, an electrical shock went through my system and I was out.  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Prowl's View:

We were getting close to the location. I could already feel the fear creeping into my systems. At first I wondered if it was Starlit I was feeling, but I soon realized even her bond to me was blocked and it was my own fear. I hadn't felt this scared since I was a youngling.  
"Prowl, how close are we?" Jazz's voice broke me out of the suffocating fear. I'm not alone this time. I reminded myself.  
I hit the brakes and everyone else followed suite. "We're here." We were a hundred feet from the ship according to the map, but we couldn't see it. "Be on guard." I said, transforming and taking off, trying to find an entrance.  
"How do we get in? And…where exactly is it?" Bumblebee asked.  
"Don' know." I heard Jazz go off in the other direction after he answered the yellow mech.  
It wasn't long until security system noticed it had visitors, and the disguise was put down.  
"Intruder alert. Intruder alert." The automated voice rang out as the guns aimed at us. We were all ready to take them out but no shots were fired. Soon the automated voice was cut and his voice was heard over the intercom.  
"Well, well, look who finally showed up. Took you long enough to get here." His voice held a strange tone, like he was smiling.  
"Where is she?" I narrowed my optics and raised my shuriken.  
"She's here. She's going through…a bit of a change."  
"What do you mean by that!?" Bumblebee yelled from the other side of the ship.  
"You'll see for yourself soon enough little one." I could almost hear Bumblebee growl at the short comment. "I will allow only one to board. The rest…shall stay here." Sideways opened the ship hatch and the guns moved to aim down at the ground by the door. "Anyone else who tries to enter, will be shot onsite."  
I ran to the other side, where the others were discussing who would go in. I knew who he wanted to go in. "I will." I stood between them and the door. "If anyone else were to try, he might shoot."  
"Prowl, are you sure you want to go on your own?" Optimus questioned.  
"When he says he'll shoot anyone else who tries to enter, he's not bluffing." I turned towards the dark opening, and took a calming breath. "Please, wait here." I took off and ran in before anyone could say anything.  
\------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Starlit's view:

I woke to a bright light shining down in my optics. I had to shut them and turn away.  
"You're awake." I looked up and saw Sideways looming over a strange device. "Are you ready for your upgrade?"  
I tried to get up, but found myself tied to the table.  
"There is no need for that." He said from above me, holding some kind of round object. He lifted my head and put it on me.  
"What is this?!" I pulled at the restraints again and tried to get the device off my head.  
"It's going to give you an upgrade. Then you and I can finally…" he was about to finish but the alarms went off.  
"Intruder alert!" the automated voice went off, along with red flashing lights.  
"Son of a glitch…" He walked away from me and turned on the computer in front of me. On the screen I saw who the intruders were. Everyone but the twins and Sentinel were here!  
"Prowl!" I called out, knowing he couldn't hear me, but I was excited to see he was here.  
"Right on time." Sideways smirked as he turned on the device that was on my head. "By the time he gets to you, it'll be too late." He hit another switch and my head felt like it was about to explode.  
\------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Prowl's view:

I crept along hallways, being careful to not leave my back exposed. The ship was dark with only a few lights on. The few lights that were on were bright and disorienting, making me feel off balance. I ignored it for the most part by dimming my visor, blocking most of the light. This however forced me to use my other senses to detect where to go.  
"GAAAAHHHHHHH!" A scream tore through the ship, loud enough to possibly even be heard from outside.  
"Starlit!" I took off, throwing caution to the wind.  
\-----------------------------------------------------------------------  
I got to the room where I heard the scream and saw Starlit tied to a metal table with a crudely put together reprograming device on her head. Her optics where white from the overload of information being downloaded into her processor, and tears of pain were streaming down her face. I quickly went over to the computer and shut it down.  
"Starlit." I ran back over to her and pulled the device off of her. It was hot to the touch. "Starlit can you hear me?" Her intake system was working overtime. Her optics had returned to their green color but she didn't seem to recognize what was going on. My denta ground together in frustration as I grabbed my shrunken and cut the ropes holding her down.  
"What are you doing?!" I deep voice roared from the doorway. "Get away from her!" Sideways activated his swords and charged at me. I scooped Starlit up, leapt over him and ran out the door.  
\--------------------------------------------------------------------------  
We got to a storage hold and hid behind a few crates. I laid Starlit down, cradling her head. "Starlit, please. I need you to answer me." I said, putting my hand on her cheek. She had a small burn mark above her right optic ridge where the device had sat. This worried me. "Please, respond to me." I felt my optics tear up but refused to let them fall. She wasn't responding. What has he done?  
The door opened farther, reveling more light and a dark looming shadow.  
"Prowl! I know you're in here…come out!" the mech who I unfortunately was sired by barked. I peeked over the crate, holding my weapon in my free hand.  
"P-Prowl?" I heard a weak voice and quickly looked down to Starlit. She seemed to be awake but was having trouble talking. I held a finger to my lips and helped her sit up.  
Can you move? I asked through our bond.  
I-I think so. Where are we? What happened? She was confused, which meant she didn't remember the pain she had been in.  
Sideways kidnapped you. We're in the storage part of the ship right now. He's in here. I need you to keep quiet and follow my lead ok? I turned back to see he was searching the other side. Come on. I took her hand and lead her away from the area.  
We hid behind a large pile of oil bins but it was farther away from the door. That seemed to be the only way out but we had to get around the 'con. I was about to relay a plan to Starlit when the door slammed shut, throwing us into complete darkness.  
"Now I've got you. You are trapped with me. The only way out is locked and I have the only key." The mech laughed from the other side of the room.  
What do we do now? I looked at a frightened Starlit. The only way I knew she was there was from the soft glow from her optics. I had to have her close her optics and shut mine off as well.  
I need you to shut your optics. The light from them could give us away. I said as I closed mine. I had the training for this but Starlit did not. I felt the fear bleed into our bond. Trust me. I'll be right with you. I took her hand.  
Ok…I trust you. She squeezed my hand as a signal that she had her optics closed. I carefully lead her around the room, using what I could only describe as sound shadows to lead the way. Starlit was absolutely lost and a few times she almost ran into things. Maybe I should have her train without sight next.  
"You can't hide forever…" I heard Sideways' voice growl from behind us. Luckily he was just as blind as us. Starlit almost reviled us by gasping but I put my hand over her mouth.  
I heard a sound and recognizing it immediately, picked Starlit up and jumped away. Not a second later, I heard him slicing through the crate we were just next to. We ended up right in front of the door but like he had said, it was locked. I had Starlit sit by a box and put a hand on her.  
Stay here. I'll be right back. I leapt away as she was about to protest.  
\--------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Starlit's View:

Great, now I was left alone, in the dark with a crazy mech running around! I kept telling myself everything was going to be ok but it didn't stop my spark from pulsing like crazy.  
I tried to listen for footsteps but there was nothing. Neither Prowl nor Sideways made any kind of noise. I wondered if I had made any noise while we were stumbling in the dark. While I was listening, I tried getting the little cuffs off of me. They were tough but I found a small seam that I could work with. I felt around the floor and found a nail. Perfect! I shoved the nail into the seam, finding a weak link and pried them off. Now if I needed to I could use my swords.  
I suddenly felt like someone was next to me. Prowl? I called to him through the bond. It wasn't him. Before I knew what was going on, I heard a switch being moved and a light shone from through my closed optics. I quickly opened them, blinded for a moment and saw the red opticed mech by the door. Luckily I was on the other side of the box and he couldn't see me.  
"Enough games! I thought I would have had the advantage in the dark but apparently you trained you sister in the ninja ways as well. Very good. Keeping it in the family." I saw him sneer.  
I saw a movement from the corner of my optic and a golden shuriken shot out from the shadows at Sideways. He blocked it, causing it to bounce and land by me. I don't think that was planned. Sideways looked over and saw me. I got up and ran away right before a sword landed in the spot I had been hiding.  
"Starlit! Come back here!" he growled and chased after me.  
I stopped when I came to a dead end. I looked around for a way out but the only way was up. Right as I was about to jump Sideways grabbed my arm.  
"Let go of me!" I didn't mean for it to happen, and it all seemed to go in slow motion. Prowl landed behind Sideways but before he could to anything, my swords extended, slicing through the 'cons hand. I moved in ways I didn't know I could and ended up somehow cutting off the lower half of Sideways left arm and left a huge diagonal gouge through his chassis.  
He fell to the ground, clutching his arm that was pouring energon and mech fluid. "Y-you little glitch!" He made a grab for me but Prowl pulled me away. Everything still seemed so unreal and I was only pulled out of it when Prowl opened the door. He had apparently gotten the key after he landed behind the Decepticon.  
"Come on!" He pushed be in front of him, forcing me to run. "Straight ahead! Keep going!" He was right behind me.  
\----------------------------------------------------------------  
Once we were outside I stopped running, my intakes working overtime to cool my systems.  
"Starlit!" I heard two voices and one set of footsteps running toward me. One was Bumblebee and the other was Jazz.  
"What happened?!" Jazz said coming towards me. I stepped back and reactivated my swords.  
"Stay away from me!" I yelled, anger flaring through me. I wasn't sure if this was another trick. Jazz put his hands up and stopped.  
"Easy now Sta'. I don' know what happened in there, but you're safe." The speech pattern was correct but so was Sideways' at first.  
"Did he trick you?" Prowl said coming up behind me. I nodded, still keeping my optics on Jazz. "It's the real Jazz. I promise." My brother put a hand on my shoulder and motioned for Jazz to approach.  
I was still wary about it but put my arms down, still keeping my swords at the ready.  
"Wha' do you mean by tricked?" Jazz asked. He was right in front of me at this point. "And why are ya covered in energon?! Are ya hurt?!" He put his hands on my shoulders and gave me a quick once over to make sure I wasn't hurt. His touch was warm and friendly. It really was the real one.  
"N-no…" I tried to hold back a sob. Prowl pulled me close while Jazz gave me a worried look. "I-I'm ok…" the tears were flowing despite my effort to hold back.  
\----------------------------------------------------------------  
Prowl's View:

Starlit was with Ratchet in the med-bay getting checked up. Her processor was fine luckily but any longer under that damn device, her processor would have been fried. Ratchet said the settings on the reprograming device were set too high. That was the reason she hadn't responded at first, her processor was trying to sort out what had happened and was trying to cool down.  
"What all happened in there?" Optimus approached me from behind.  
"He was trying to reprogram her." I answered shortly. "He wants her to join him it seems. She…also proved she's not that weak. The energon and mech fluid on her was Sideways'. She cut his arm off."  
"Woh! Who knew she had it in her." Jazz said from next to me. I nodded in agreement. The thing was, when she had done it, her optics took on a darkness.  
"Prowl, come in here!" Ratchet called from down the hall. I shot up and ran down the hall, worried about what he found.

"What is it?!" I said running into the medical bay.  
"You're turn to get checked up." Ratchet said, motioning me to sit down.  
"Where is…" I tried to ask as I sat down, but the medic cut me off by starting to scan my processor.  
"Bumblebee took her to the wash racks. She's fine, tired and covered in a 'cons blood but ok." He answered. "Anything you want to talk about?"  
"When she…defended herself, her optics…they had this…darkness..." I said, thinking maybe talking it out would help.  
"I think it was part of the programming he tried to download. I saw that too, but was able to delete that small code that was left over. She's all clear. As are you." He allowed me to stand back up.  
"So…he was partially successful? You don't think she could really be…"  
"Do you remember Soundwave? How he had all of the bots in town acting crazy? It's not too far off to think we could be reprogrammed too." Ratchet said solemnly.  
I bowed my head a bit in thought. "Thank you, Ratchet." I said as I got up and walked out.  
\--------------------------------------------------------------  
Starlit's View:

I stood in the water, just letting it fall on me. Bee was just outside the showers because I told him I wanted to be alone. He of course refused to leave completely so I settled with him being by the door. I felt better now that Ratchet had gotten rid of that small strain of code but I was still reeling about what I did. I hadn't felt anything. Even after I had injured my estranged sire, I felt nothing. When I told this to Ratchet, he said it was cause by the code, but I was worried still. What if it wasn't the code? What if it was because I was half Decepticon? I knew I was dwelling too much on it but what if…?  
I shook that thought out of my head. I would never harm my friends! No matter what.  
"Star?" I heard the yellow mech's sad voice echo through the wash room. He was no longer facing the other way.  
"What?" My tone matched his.  
"Are…you ok? I mean…no one has said a word about what really happened. At least to me." His voice was getting closer to me.  
"I-I don't even know what all happened." It didn't feel real still.  
"Can you at least tell me that the energon you were covered in wasn't yours?" He sounded worried. I chuckled at that but it had no humor behind it.  
"No, it wasn't mine, or Prowl's." I turned to look at him and saw for the first time all the worry and concern on his face. "I'm fine Bee, really." I didn't sound so sure and Bee picked up on it.  
"Hey, you don't have to tell me everything, but don't lie to me or yourself about being ok." He put his hand on my shoulder. It was odd for him to do such a thing. I smiled at him through the tears threatening to fall again.  
"I-I don't know how to explain what happened Bee…" I tried to compose myself but failed again. I blamed my systems for the over emotional slag.  
"You don't have too." He wrapped one arm around my waist and the other behind my neck, allowing me to burry my face into the crook of his neck. I held him back and cried into his shoulder. "You can tell me when you're ready to…" he whispered into my audio.  
I smiled and tightened my hold on the yellow bot and silently wished for this moment to never end.  
\----------------------------------------------------------------  
Back at the Ship:

"Little glitch…" Sideways growled as he welded a new arm on.  
"Oh come on now, she can't be that bad." Another voice said from the shadows.  
"She cut my arm off!" Sideways slammed his working arm on the table.  
"But the reprograming worked didn't it?" The figure came into the light, reveling a mismatched mech with a hook arm.  
"No, Lockdown…it did not. I need your help to get it working." Sideways motioned to the device sitting on a shelf. "You would know why it isn't working."  
Lockdown walked over to it, picked it up and looked it over. "The settings are too high. You'll fry her processor before the program can even begin if you do that again. I think I might have something to help with that."  
"What do you want?" The black and gold mech sighed as he finished up putting his new arm on. It didn't match his coloring at all. It was red and black, but was the correct model and matched his right arm.  
"Oh, I don't want anything from you. It's your mechling that I need to talk to." Lockdown grinned.  
"What makes you think he'll talk to me?" He lifted the new red arm and flexed his new fingers. "Thank you again for the arm."  
"No problem, old friend. Thank you for the two hundred credits. And I don't expect you to contact Prowl. I'll find him." Lockdown started to leave.  
"Wait." Sideways barked, causing the mismatched mech to stop. "What are you doing on this planet anyway?"  
"Elite Guard asked for my help. That and you called."  
"You're kidding…"  
"Nope. Seems this Sentinel punk wants to pretend he's catching 'Cons. It pays good money. You aren't on his list though."  
"An Autobot, asking for a bounty hunter for help? Ha!" Sideways laughed humorously. "They're getting desperate…"  
"Sides, I know you want your kids back. Just be careful and don't get yourself slagged by them. That outburst by your daughter sounds a little fishy."  
"You've been on this planet too long…and it just proves she is a true Decepticon deep down." Sideways grinned.  
"Whatever. See ya." Lockdown gave a curt wave before exiting Sideways' ship.  
"I will get my family back…I will finally live the life I was meant to have…" The black and gold mech said to himself, his voice echoing in the empty ship.


	14. Chapter 14

Starlit's View:

Prowl had become even worst since I had been kidnapped! Yes, I was happy that I was training with him more, but I was barely allowed to leave my room! And I'm not joking; I left my room to get an energon cube and he freaked out because he couldn't find me. Primus, he nearly blew a gasket in those few astroseconds I was 'lost.' This was almost as bad as being on Sideways' ship, almost. It had been five days since then and I'll admit, I was scared he'd come back, but I couldn't live in fear the rest of my life!

"Ugh!" I cried out in frustration and punched the brick wall near my berth; I left a small dent but ended up hurting myself more than anything. "Ow…." I shook my hand to make the pain go away.  
"Please to be excusing us, but are you ok?" I looked up and saw Jetfire and Jetstorm peeking their heads into my room.  
"Hey! No, I'm…fine." I lied. "What are you doing here?" I motioned for them to come in with my good hand.  
"We came to see if you were being ok." Jetstorm had a worried look on his face as he and his brother approached.  
"We heard what happened. You must have been in much fear." Jetfire put a hand on my shoulder once he was close enough.  
"I was..." I trailed off when Jetstorm put his hand on my other shoulder. Both of them had the same look on their faces, pity and concern. I was sick of seeing it. Prime, Ratchet, Bulkhead and even Bee had been giving me that look all week! "Please, don't give me that look." It came out a little meaner than I meant.  
"Sorry, we…"  
"Just worried for you." The orange twin finished.  
"I know. Sorry, I didn't mean to sound angry but I'm tired of everybots pity. I get it, it was terrifying for everyone involved but…I'm fine!" Both bots smiled softly and pulled me into a three bot hug.  
"We are glad you are being ok." Jetstorm said near my right audio receptor.  
"We knowing you would be." Jetfire said in my left.  
"Oh! Other reason we came by, have you ever been to flying?" The blue jet broke the hug and looked at me with a big grin.  
"Um, no." I tilted my head to the side. "You two are the only Autobots that can fly."  
"You is having jump boosters!" Jetfire wrapped his arm around my shoulders and started leading me out the door, his blue twin in tow. "Come!"  
"We to be taking you!" His blue counterpart finished. I always thought it was cool how they could finish one another's sentences.  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------  
We were just at the door of the base when Prowl stopped us.  
"And where do you think you three are going?" He said in his usual cool tone, but I could hear the warning hidden in it.  
"We were going to show fem cycle motor..er Starlit what it like to fly!" Jetfire beamed.  
"Yeah! She have jump boosters to help her up keep with us!" Jetstorm matched his brother's smile.  
Prowl then set his gaze on me.  
"We'll be safe." I shrunk back a bit. I had learned that gaze the hard way. I had seen in first when I ran my flying bug in to his helm and again after I had back talked Sentential.  
"No. We have more training to do." Prowl said shortly.  
"But…" he held his hand up to stop my protest.  
"As long as he is still out there you are not safe."  
"And I'm safer here?" I crossed my arms. I noticed the twins had backed up a little bit.  
"We not to be taking her far." The orange mech spoke up, but his voice wavered a bit.  
"Yes, we be just outside. You can come watch if you please." Jetstorm had a bit more confidence in his voice. Prowl was about to say no again when Jazz rolled up behind us.

"There you two are. I wondered where ya had flown off ta." He transformed. "You were right above me for a while but took off da wrong way."  
"We wanted to see Starlit." They said in unison.  
"I see. And you didn' tell me?" Jazz put his hands on his hips. "It's fine by me. Just tell me next time."  
"Yes sir!" Both smiled sheepishly.  
"They wanted to take me flying." I was ignoring the death glare behind me.  
"Flyin'? You do know she can't right?" Jazz said, raising an optic ridge. "Though, I guess her jump jets could help that out."  
"I told them no." Prowl was losing his cool.  
"Why not?" Jazz asked him. "As long as they stay close and keep their com-links open, I see no problem." Thank you! I mentally thanked Jazz.  
"Jazz I…" the black and white ninja appeared by Prowl in a blink of an optic.  
"Prowl, she'll be fine. I know yer worried about her, but she can't stay here forever." He put an arm around Prowl's waist. "'Sides, the twins are with her. Before you say she wasn't even safe with me, let me remind you, they will be in the air." He said giving the twins a look. "Keep your com open so all ya got to do is press it ta call us."  
"Well to be doing." Jetfire beamed.  
"I will too!" I smiled at Jazz. Prowl was angry but he seemed to calm a bit when he heard me say I'd keep my com-link open as well.  
"Be careful up there." Jazz gave his signature smile as Jetstorm took my arm and ran out the door with his twin in the lead.  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------  
Prowl's View:

I turned to Jazz and glared. How could he do that?! He went against my word and allowed them to do this.  
"Prowl, I know you're mad but…"  
"Mad? Oh no…I'm furious! How could you do that?! I had already told them no and you come in, over mining my authority!" I yelled and put a finger against his chest. "She will now never listen to me!"  
"Now, now, you and I both know that ain't true. She respects your authority and will still listen, but ya gotta loosen ya leash on her." Jazz had put his hands up in a non-threatening way. "You saw what happened last time you practically locked her in here. Prowl, I didn't tell you this, but she told me the reason she left last time was 'cause you were suffocatin' her. I know ya mean well, but if you keep caging her in, she'll keep runnin'." Jazz took my hands into his by this point.  
What he said was all true. I couldn't keep her in here. She had every right to leave and live a normal life.  
"I-I didn't realize she felt like that…I didn't mean to make her feel like she was trapped. I…I just want to keep her safe." Jazz put a hand against my cheek.  
"I know baby. But yer goin' about it the wrong way. As long as she's with someone and not out there alone, she'll be ok." He kissed my chevron and pulled me in close. "The twins know what they're doin', even if it's a bit unorthodox. They got their own unique way of protecting bots they care about." I could feel his smiled against my audio. "And now, we got some free time to do what we please."  
"You have a one tracked processor…" I sighed but was smiling softly myself.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------  
Starlit's View:

As soon as we were out in the open, the twins activated their boosters and flew up a few feet.  
"Is you to be coming?" Jetstorm held his hand out.  
"Or is you wanting to go back in?" Jetfire teased, a little higher up than his twin.  
I rolled my optics and activated my jump jets, for the very first time, and was able to get level with the orange and white mech. I was surprised I was able to get this high.  
"No way! I'm finally out again and want to take advantage of it!" I grinned, but it faltered when my jump jets decided to cut out. Jetstorm caught me, putting his hands on my waist and kept me level.  
"First time?" He had a teasing tone as well. I turned my head to look at him.  
"Yeah, actually." I admitted.  
"We to be teaching you then!" Jetfire took off, leaving me and his twin behind.  
"Not being fair!" Jetstorm took off, still holding on to me and caught up with the fire twin. "If I to be letting go, you activate your jump boosters?" He said when he got level again with Jetfire. Thankfully he stopped. I looked down and saw we were quite a ways up now.  
"Um…I-I'm not sure…" I instinctively grabbed onto his hands to keep him from letting go.  
"Nothing will happen." I looked up and saw the sincerity on Jetfire's face. "We will be right with you if something was to go wrong." I swallowed my fear and nodded.  
"On the counting of three." Jetstorm pushed back a bit to give me room to activate my boosters without burning him. "One…" I let go of his hands.  
"Two." Jetfire extended his hand for me to take, just in case.  
"Three!" They both said, the blue and white mech let me go and I immediately turned my jump jets on. I descended a few feet, both bots following, but was soon back up to the right level.  
"Keep it going!" Jetfire cheered.  
"You is doing great!" Jetstorm beamed and moved a bit to the right. "Keep concentrating to keep the flow." He took my hand and we took off.

After a while, it was obvious I had gotten the hang of my jump jets, he let go and flew a bit in front of me. I could feel myself smiling.  
"Look brother, we have another flying bot on team!" Jetfire laughed as he closed in on us. It wasn't hard seeing as we were barely traveling over ten miles an hour.  
"Yes, we may have new sky racing buddy." Jetstorm laughed with him.  
"Is true, but I'll always being the fastest." The orange twin smirked and took off again, in to opposite direction. "Betting you can't catch me!" he called after us, voice fading fast.  
"Betting you we can!" Jetstorm looped his arm around mine. "Be giving it all you got!" He told me before giving it all he had, and taking off at a high speed. There was no way my boosters could get me up to that speed, but I still kept them on to help keep me air born.  
"Woohoo!" I cheered as we broke the sound barrier. I could hear Jetstorm laugh and my enthusiasm.  
\-----------------------------------------------------  
I don't think I had had that much fun in all my life! Both twins had to take turns helping me keep up with them, but the whole time I was able to keep myself aloft. It wasn't until Jazz called that we realized how much time had actually passed.  
"Hey you three, how's it goin'?" Jazz's voice rang through all three of our coms.  
"She is doing fantastic!" Jetfire praised.  
"Yes, but she is not as fast." Jetstorm shrugged.  
"Hehe…well she wouldn't be. She's not build to do the high speed flying you two goofbots do." Jazz laughed. "I'm gonna have to cut your fun short and ask ya'll to come back. It's gettin' late."  
"Really? What time is it?" I asked. From up here at three thousand feet, it still looked like it was the afternoon.  
"About seven Earth time." I could hear Jazz's smile. "You three have been flyin' for a good three hours."  
Woh…crazy how time flies! I thought to myself.  
"We will be heading in that direction very soon mister Jazz sir." Jetfire sounded a little sad, but we didn't have much of a choice. They had to go back to the Steel Haven to do repairs and I had to go back and train with Prowl.  
\----------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Landing was not easy. They landed on the roof, Primus knows why but they did. The twins did fine but Jetfire had to catch me because my boosters went out before I could try to coordinate myself into a proper landing positon.  
"You should not be getting used to us catching you." He grinned as he held me bridal style.  
"Sorry…" I felt my face heat up as he set my down.  
"You not harmed?" Jetstorm gave me a quick glance.  
"No, my boosters went out before I could catch myself." I shrugged.  
"You be needing to get the hang of them." Jetfire put his hands behind his head.  
"Woh…brother! Look at the view!" Jetstorm was over near the edge. "Tis very pretty!" It was quite a beautiful sight, the sun was setting behind the buildings, giving them a purple and pink glow. The sunset was a bright orange, contrasting with the purple looking buildings.  
"It is." I said walking up and standing by his left.  
"Why did you not say you had such a pretty view?" Jetfire came up behind me on, my right side, and nudged me with his elbow.  
"I've never been up here…well, too look out upon the city anyway." I shrugged and sat down, my feet dangling off the edge.  
"Oh." They both took a seat on either side of me. Neither twin said anything for a while.

"I know I may know answer but, why did cycle motor Prowl not want us to taking you flying?" I turned to look at the visored twin.  
"He's…worried he'll come back…" I leaned back on my hands. "I know he means well, but I really don't need him to be hovering over me all of the time."  
"But, he knows we would never let harm come to you." Jetfire leaned back on his hands as well, one of them ending up behind me. His twin mirrored his actions and both were now a bit closer to me. It wasn't uncomfortable, but it was odd being 'squished' between them.  
"I think he knows that. But like Jazz said, even though I was with him, I still ended up in his clutches…"  
"Is true…but he also said that with us being in sky, no harm would come!" Jetstorm scooted a little closer to me, as did Jetfire.  
"Listen," Jetfire put a hand on my right cheek, making me turn to face him. "We will not let this Decepticon be getting you again." I felt my faceplates heat up at how close he was.  
"That we promise." Jetstorm leaned his forhelm against the back of my head. I could feel his warm intakes on the back of my neck.

Before I could even register what was going on, Jetfire closed the gap between us and pressed our lip components together. My optics widened and I took in a sharp intake but relaxed a bit when I realized what he was doing. I loosely put my arms around Jetfire's shoulders and kissed back. I felt Jetstorm kiss the base of my neck and wrapped his arms around my waist.

He tried to deepen the kiss, but it didn't feel right. It kind of felt like I was kissing my brother, well, a brother any way. I broke the kiss and opened my optics, not remembering when I had closed them, and looked into the dim golden optics of the orange twin.  
"What is being wrong?" He asked softly, his lips just a whisper away from my own.  
"I-I…" I was cut off by Jetstorm releasing me and putting a finger to his audio.

"Sentinel Prime sir!" He said as he sat back up. "Yes sir, we will be right there." He hung up and turned back to us. I had noticed his visor had dimmed as well and wondered if my optics had done the same. Primus I hope not.  
"We having to be going…" Jetfire said sadly from my right.  
"But, we will to being back." Jetstorm smiled warmly. Both leaned in and kissed my cheeks before taking off and transforming.  
"Be seeing you soon!" They called as they flew off.  
"Bye…" I said weakly and put a hand up to my lips. They still tingled a bit.

What are you doing?! I shook my head to clear my thoughts. Frag! They took my first kiss! I briefly wondered why I was upset by it; it wasn't often you get hit on by a set of twins, but my thoughts went back to Bee and how the kiss from Jetfire felt. I wonder how his lips feel…I wondered for a second but shoved that thought away.  
"Well, well, I didn't think you liked the twins in that way." I shot up, almost falling off the roof. "Who there!" Jazz grabbed my arm and pulled me back from the ledge. "Didn't mean to startled ya." He chuckled.  
"Sorry…just…jumpy still." I turned my face away so he couldn't see how dark it was. As I did, I caught a glimps of Jazz's chassis and noticed there were some scratches along it. They were located right about where his spark chamber was but I decided not to ask.  
"Or maybe you're lost in your thoughts?" Jazz smiled. "Thinkin' about a certain pair of bots?" He teased.  
"What?! No! That was…was…" I had lost the word.  
"A mistake?" Jazz finished for me.  
"Well…yeah…" I said, fidgeting under his gaze.  
"You should tell 'em that. Don't let 'em think something is there when there isn't." He gave me a half smile. "Ya dig?"  
"Yeah…I know."  
"Any who. I came up here to tell ya Sentinel has picked up a 'con signal. Prowl wants you to go inside and stay with Bee ok?" I nodded and made my way down from the roof.  
\------------------------------------------------------------------  
I had locked myself in my room for a while to clear my head. I sat in a lotus pose and tried to meditate. Prowl said it helped him clear his processor, so maybe it would work for me. It didn't help though. Every time I closed my eyes, I could feel Jetfire's lip components on mine which caused me to think and wonder about a certain yellow bot. Slag! I gave up and stood. Stop thinking about it! I put a hand on my forhelm and sighed in frustration. Of course this didn't help at all.  
I decided maybe I should lay down for a bit and try to clear my processor. Not too long after I laid down, I drifted off in to a restless recharge.  
\------------------------------------------------------  
The twin's hands were all over me, touching and finding the right seams to caress. Jetstorm was behind me, kissing and licking my neck while Jetfire swallowed my moans with his own mouth.  
"Must to be keeping it down…" Jetstorm panted into my left audio before he lightly nipped at it.   
"Is not wanting to be caught…" Jetfire broke the kiss for a click before moving downward. Everywhere they touched felt like it was on fire.  
"Primus…" I heard myself whisper and the orange twin kept kissing lower and lower.  
"Think she is prepared enough?" Jetstorm purred into my neck. I heard a click and looked down to see my valve was exposed to the world. My face darkened in embarrassment.  
"Is no reason to be shy…" Jetfire leaned up and kissed me again while his fingers went elsewhere. I arched and gave out a silent scream.  
"You like that?" a different voice said. I opened my optics and saw Bumblebee's face in front of mine.  
\-----------------------------------------------------------  
I woke up with a start, taking huge intakes to calm down. My cooling fans had kicked in and I had an uncomfortable wetness between my thighs. I looked down and saw lubricant dripping out of my still closed interface port. Thankfully my valve was still hidden behind my plating so if anyone to walk in, at least I wouldn't be flashing them.  
I cradled my head in my hands. This was getting out of control! I needed to do something about this but if I acted on it…my thoughts went off to all of the possible ways it could go wrong. What if Bee didn't like me that way? What if I acted on it and he rejected me? How would we be able to work as a team after that?  
I groaned and flopped back down on my berth. But if everything did go right, then what? I act on it and we become a couple? What would Prowl do? These thoughts kept me up for a while.  
\--------------------------------------------------------------------  
I awoke somewhat early in the morning and sighed as the sun hit my optics. The sun shone through my window like that when it was about eight in the morning. I stretched and got up, still feeling groggy and my systems were sluggish.  
I walked out of the room and was startled by a mech that looked similar to an Earth samurai. I activated my swords which cause the bot to quickly turn around.  
"Prowl?" I recognized his face but everything else was different.  
"Yes?." He smiled softly.  
"Woh…" I walked up to him and touched the new armor on his arm. "Cool upgrades!" I beamed.  
"Thank you. I like them as well." I looked up a bit and saw he had similar scratches like Jazz had on his chassis.  
"What's with the scratches?" If I had been more awake, I wouldn't have asked. It made him a bit uncomfortable but he answered.  
"Jazz and I…are bonded." My face lit up and I embraced my brother.  
"Congrats bro!" I smiled into his neck. He gave me a soft smile back.  
"Thank you, Starlit. I need to go visit Jazz. He and his crew are leaving very soon." He said sadly.  
"Can I come too?" I asked.  
"Of course you may. Come on." He and I transformed and raced out of the base to see Jazz one last time before they headed back for Cybertron. Over our sibling bond, Prowl asked me it the scratches were really that noticeable. I laughed and told him I only noticed because I was standing so close. He said, more to himself than me that he'd buff them out when we got back.


	15. Chapter 15

Starlit's View:

Things were too quiet now. Jazz wasn't around to keep Prowl busy and the twins weren't in the living area cheering Bumblebee and Sari when they played video games. I was sitting by them in a chair made of old tires watching them race around a track made of rainbows.  
Speaking of the twins, they had understood my feelings. Jetfire apologized for pushing me into to it and Jetstorm said we would always be friends. However, both of their optics showed a bit of sorrow at my words. I was happy that they weren't angry at me, but that didn't settle my conflicted feelings. I liked them yes, but I wasn't sure if I felt anything other than friendship towards them.

"Yes!" Bumblebee cried out, making me jump out of my thoughts. "I win again!"  
"Ah man!" Sari crossed her arms and pouted. "That's the fifth time in a row!"  
"Sure you don't want to play?" Bee asked me, ignoring Sari's complaint and holding out a third controller. "Sari got new ones so we can do four player games now."  
"Yeah, don't break them this time!" Sari teased him.  
"No, I'm content just watching." I smiled softly. I had played with them earlier but had been too distracted to really do any damage. I had kicked Bee's skid plates in this game previously though. Sari had laughed and Bee had been in shock.  
"You sure? I could really use you help in kicking his butt." Sari tilted her head towards the yellow bot.  
"She just got lucky!" Bee puffed up in pride. "I bet she can't do it again." He was trying to get me riled up so I would play. It wasn't working.  
"Sorry guys, I'm just not in the mood." I got up and headed back towards my room. I could feel them watching me leave.  
"She ok?" I heard Sari whisper.  
"I'm…not sure." Bee whispered back.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------  
While I was walking past Prowl's room, I heard him humming. He was practicing this thing called processor over matter. I had asked him if he would teach me, but he said it was too advanced for me. Eventually I would get there.  
"Prowl?" I peeked in. He lifted his head in acknowledgment. "Can…Um…can I come in?"  
"Of course." He motioned for me to take a seat in front of him. "What's on your mind? You seem troubled." I envied how he could read bots so easily.  
"I…don't know…" I said honestly as I sat down in front of him, mirroring his pose. "If I tell you something…will you swear to not get mad?" He raised an optic ridge at that.  
"Sure." He sounded wary about it, but was opened to it at least.  
I took a deep intake and begin. "Ok, so I like this bot but…I'm afraid if I ask him if he likes me, he'll reject me." I paused to gage his reaction. His face was completely blank. "But if he doesn't reject me…what do I do?"  
"Starlit, you're still very young. Are you sure you like this bot?" Prowl questioned. I nodded. "Then…you should tell him. If he does reject you, there are plenty of other bots out there." There was also a threat hidden in that answer, like if he ever found the bot he'd offline him. "Was that helpful?"  
Not really…"I guess so…" I left my real thoughts out.  
"I'm sorry, I'm not really the bot to ask these kind of things. If you would like, you could call Jazz. He might have more advice on this kind of thing." He offered. It was true, Prowl didn't seem to be the most romantic bot; and yet he ended up he somehow ended up bonding with Jazz.  
"Maybe." I smiled. "Thanks any way." I was about to get up and leave when Prowl suggested we train. He said it might help clear my mind.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------  
My joints hurt so badly after the two megacycles of training today. He was teaching me throws and how to escape from holds. I thought it was going to be fun, finally learning how to get away, but pit I have never been so wrong. I don't know how many times I ended up lying flat on the training mat. I swear the air got knocked out of me a few times. I did manage to throw him once, only for him to sweep my legs out from under me. He told me I should always be on guard as he pinned me again.  
Right now all I wanted to do to refuel and relax for a while. Bumblebee had taken Sari home so it was, thankfully, quiet in the main room for once. I don't think I could take the noise right now.  
Relaxing apparently wasn't going to happen however, because as soon as I got to the energon station, a warning blared onto the computer screen. There was apparently a distress signal coming from a warehouse.  
"Looks like there's a fire near the pier!" Optimus called to everyone as he ran down from the computer consoles. "Autobots, transform and roll out!"  
I watched as Ratchet, Bulkhead and Optimus passed me to leave the base. I sighed in despair as I would once again be left behind.  
"Why have you not transformed?" I jumped at Prowl's voice behind me.  
"You said I had too…"  
"It's only a fire. You may join us." He transformed and waited for me to do the same. I beamed as I transformed as speed out of the base, Prowl following close behind.  
\--------------------------------------------------------------------------  
It was so nice to get out and use my wheels again. Sure, it hadn't been all that long since I had been out of the base, but that was when I flew with the twins. I didn't have a chance to use my wheels and race along the roads.  
"Hey! Look who's finally been released!" Bee teased as I made my way up next to him, passing the others as I went. He met up with us on the highway.  
Prowl wasn't too happy about me speeding and told me to slow down. I chose to take it as suggestion and not a warning.  
"Ha, ha…" If I had optics in my alt. mode I would have rolled them.  
"Stay sharp you two, we don't know how big this fire is or if any humans are involved." Optimus chided us.  
"Yeah, yeah." The yellow compacted brushed him off. "Come on boss bot, it's not like we've never dealt with a fire before."  
"Yeah…but I don't see a fire." Bulkhead cut in as we turned the corner and ended up where the signal was coming from. We all came to a stop and transformed.  
"What in Cybertron is going on?" Ratchet growled. "Fraggin' scanner must be busted."  
"Or, we've been dooped." Prowl walked over to a trash pile on the side of the warehouse and picked up a device with a blinking red light. "This seems to be where the signal is coming from."  
"Stay alert and fan out." Optimus sighed before splitting us into teams. "Bulkhead and Prowl search near the pier. Bumblebee and Starlit, see if you two can see into the warehouse and give us visual. Ratchet and I will survey the nearby warehouses." Prowl didn't seem to be too happy about being split from me but didn't argue with Optimus.  
\-----------------------------------------------------------------------  
Bee took the lower windows while I jumped up and looked down from the sky lights, and over the roof tops of the other buildings. It was dark inside but from the outside you could see in pretty clearly.  
"All clear so far boss bot." Bee said from over the team comm. link. "No sign of any one."  
"All clear from up here too." I agreed.  
"Haven't found anything over here either." Bulkhead responded.  
"No sign from the next warehouse either." Prime sighed. "Something isn't right. Let's regroup and…"  
"GAH!" Bumblebee's cry cut into Prime's command.  
"Bee?" I called over the side of the building. I looked around but there was no sign of the yellow compact.  
"Bumblebee, respond!" I could hear the fear in Optimus' voice. "We're coming to your location, Starlit. Stay where you are."  
Like I had much of a choice. I jumped down from the roof and looked around where Bee had just been. I scanned the area trying to find a signal but couldn't even pick up the smallest traces of him. Prime was right, something was off.  
"Looking for me?" I spun around towards the voice but was meet with a servo and was once again knocked out.  
\----------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Prowl's view:

We all ran, or in my case drove, as fast as we could to where Starlit and Bumblebee were but we're too late. I hadn't been all that far away from her and again she had been kidnapped. I was angry at myself for letting this happen. I should have been with her. I mentally scolded myself for allowing us to be separated.  
"Whoever did this can't be far." Ratchet was scanning for possible heat signatures and traces of their energy signatures. "They were here a click ago."  
I tried to reach out to Starlit through our bond but wasn't getting anything back. There wasn't an emptiness or pain so she was still online, so it meant that she was knocked out. Slag…  
\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Starlit's view:

I awoke to blinding lights glaring in my optics. For a nano click I thought I was back at the base on Ratchet's medical table, but as the blurriness cleared I saw that I was in fact in the place I had nightmares about. I was back on Sideways' ships. I tried to sit up but found I couldn't move. I struggled a bit before realizing the bonds tightened the more you struggled. They didn't do that last time. He must have upgraded.  
"Star?" I heard a whisper to my right. I looked over and saw Bumblebee was tied to the table right next to me. "Oh good, you're awake." He sounded relived. "I thought he took you offline." Bumblebee had apparently met with Sideways while I was still out. I could tell from the dent he had in his chassis, he had made him mad.  
"No, I'm ok. You?" He nodded and winced when the ties tightened.  
"Ga…w-what do you think he wants?" He asked through the pain.  
"I…he wants to reprogram me. He wants me to join him and the Decepticons." I wasn't sure if Prowl had told anyone else what had happened last time. I know I sure hadn't. Apparently he hadn't either by Bee's look of surprise.  
"What?!" He said a bit too loudly. "How does he think he's gonna do that?!"  
"Shhh! Keep it down!" I whispered. "We don't know where he is." As if on que, he came in.  
"So, you're awake." I tried to look over to him but the ropes held me in place. "Let's began where we left off shall we?" He was walking around just out of sight so neither of us could see what was going on.  
"Leave her alone!" Bumblebee revved and struggled in his bonds. I have no idea how he was able to struggle that much without getting completely crushed.  
"Why do you care what I do?" Sideways had an edge to his voice. "You're just her teammate. It's not like you really care about her."  
"I do care! She's my friend!" Sideways came to his side, where I could see him and held his sword to Bee's main energon line. Bee halted in his movements and backed as far as he could into the table.  
"No! Don't!" I cried and tried to break free. Sideways flashed a dark smile.  
"I see. You two are a bit more than friends, aren't you?" I watched as Bee's cheeks darkened and felt mine darken as well. Sideways chuckled darkly. "How I will love to see you destroy him when we are done." I felt my spark drop at his words.  
He walked back behind us and I heard something click. I knew that sound all too well, it was that stupid device. I struggled a bit more but stopped when I felt it slip over my head. Bumblebee gasped in horror right before Sideways flipped the switch and my world was once again thrown into darkness and pain.  
\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Bumblebee's View:

I watched in horror as sparks flew off of Starlit's helm and she screamed in pain.  
"No! Stop this! You'll take her offline!" He almost had last time from what I had heard Ratchet say. For pits sake I had seen the burn marks it had left behind.  
"Oh, I fixed that little glitch." The gold and black mech stepped in front of her to check her vitals. I noticed that one of his arms was a different color and he had a deep weld in his chest plate where he had repaired himself. If my memory served me right, which it usually did, those injuries were delivered by the screaming femme next to me.  
"Nice arm. Where'd you get it?" If I couldn't physically harm him, maybe I could somehow trick him into letting his guard down. I had tried earlier but he clocked be in the chassis, knocking the wind out of me. I watched as his red and black hand clenched into a fist.  
"That is none of your concern." He revved. The computer screen in front of him lit up and showed the progress of Starlit's reprograming. It was progressing far too fast for my liking. The download was already at thirty percent.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Prowl's view:

Starlit's signal was still hidden but Bumblebee's had popped up. We followed it to a warehouse that was across the pier.  
"I don't think this is a warehouse." Bulkhead stated the obvious as we transformed.  
"No, it's not. It's a hologram." I was trying to think of a plan when I heard the weapons systems turn online and the automated voice sounded off. Looks like he wasn't going to be messing around this time. He hadn't even bothered to talk to us. I readied my weapons and was about to take out the guns when Bulkhead's wrecking balls hit the side of this ship, causing the hologram to flicker and die. He seemed to hit a main power line.  
"Nice work Bulkhead! Come on!" Optimus and I took off, running straight to the main door. I just hoped we weren't too late.  
Before we could even try to get into the ship, the weapons came back online and we were forced back once again. Hang on Starlit…  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Bumblebee's view:

I kept trying to activate my stingers but the bonds kept tightening around my wrist, making them useless. Slag it all! Come on, think of a way out! I scolded myself. I looked up in dismay at the screen. The download was now at seventy percent. If it reached a hundred, I feared even Ratchet couldn't fix the damage. I was about to give my stingers one last shot when the power suddenly cut out. I heard Sideways growl in frustration and slam his fist into the computer conceals, making is spark. By the time the emergency red lights came on, he was gone. I looked down at the bonds as I felt them go slack and was able to untangle myself from their grasp. I got up and ran over to Starlit.  
"Star?!" I cried as I put my hands on the side of her face. "Starlit, say something!" I studied her face for any sign she was ok. "Slag come on! Please wake up…." I was starting to worry he had done some serious damage when she groaned in pain. Oh thank Primus…  
"Bee?" She moved a bit but I made her stop.  
"Hold on." I activated my stingers and blasted the binding off of her. "There, can you stand?" I asked as I took of the reprograming device off of her head. I decided to subspace it so it couldn't be used by this crazy mech again.  
"I-I think so…" I helped her up and wrapped her arm around my shoulder to keep her steady.  
"Do you happen to remember how to get out of here?" I asked as we started walking. She nodded and pointed the way.  
"This way…" We hobbled down the dark hallway that was lit with intermitted blinking red lights. "At the end take a right. The door should be up ahead." She sounded weak. I really hoped what the crazy Decepticreep had done was still revisable.  
Once we got outside we saw a battle was going on. Bulkhead had his own wrecking balls wrapped around him and was trying to get untied. Optimus and Ratchet were dodging and fighting not only Sideways but the guns on the ship and Prowl was staying right on his Sire.  
"Stay here!" I sat Starlit down nearby and took aim at the 'Con. I tried to shoot but he saw me and shoved Prime into me, making my shot hit a lamp post that knocked Ratchet down.  
"Sorry…" I said, rubbing where my helm had hit the ground.  
"At least you got Starlit out of there." Boss bot said, helping me up as we returned to the fray.  
Before we could even try to lead a hand to Prowl, Sideways threw him and jumped on top of his ship. Prowl flipped and managed to land on his feet.  
"I think I've left my mark. There is no need for me to take her back. Soon, she will seek me out." Sideways laughed evilly and disappeared somewhere on the roof of his ship. I wondered if there was a hatch up there.  
I saw Prowl try to run after him but the ship powered up and took off. Apparently the power to the engine wasn't cut.  
\----------------------------------------------------------------------  
Prowl's View:

I watched as the son of a glitch took off to hide away once more. I was so close to placing a tracking device on his ship but the thrusters forced me to jump back to keep from being burned. I revved in frustration but stopped my self-loathing when I heard Bumblebee talking to Starlit.  
"You still ok?" I turned and saw Bumblebee kneeling in front of her. As I approached, he was suddenly thrown back into Optimus.  
"Yo! What was that for!?" The yellow mech yelled at her, obviously angry at her sudden outburst, but the anger was cut short and turned to concern. "Star…?"  
I gasped when I looked over to her. Her usually green optics had turned red. "No…" I said more to myself than anyone.  
She turned to me and activated her swords. She charged at me, lashing out and clipping Optimus' shoulder when he tried to stop her. She swung at me a few times and I was, for once, glade she didn't have the training I had to land a hit on me.  
"Starlit, listen to me. You have to fight this!" I dodged a few attacks and had to block the last one with my shuriken. "I know you can hear me…" I looked into her optics and saw a small glimmer of hope when they flashed green again.  
"P-Prowl?" She backed off a bit and retracted her swords. "W-what's…GAAA!" She cried out, falling to her knees, and put her hands on her forhelm as the programming he downloaded into her processor flared again, causing visible sparks along her frame. "What's happening to me?!" She sounded on the verge of tears. When she moved her hands, her right optic was red while the other remained green.  
"By the Allspark…" I gasped and tried to help her up.  
"No!" She pushed me away. "Stay away! I don't want to hurt you!" She looked from me to the others as if trying to find a way to escape.  
"Starlit, you're not going to hurt us. We can help you. Please calm down." I put my hands up in a none threatening way.  
She looked back to me with fear in her optics. It wasn't fear of me however but a fear of her hurting me. She didn't have the power to now, but if the coding fully took over, she could possibly over power me.  
"Kid, don't try and fight this." Ratchet said as he approached. Optimus apparently helped him up during our fight. Bumblebee was currently trying to help our green giant get out of his binds. "I'm going to put you out with a small EMP burst alright?" He was staying calm so she wouldn't lash out. She backed up a bit from him but ended up bumping into me. I put my hands on her shoulders to keep her calm and to keep her from running.  
"It won't hurt." I said so only she could hear me. She looked up at me with a sad smile. While she was distracted, I signaled for Ratchet to do it. She was out like a light within a nano second.  
\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Back at base while Ratchet was scanning her processor and seeing what he could do for her, I was with Optimus while he questioned Bumblebee about what happened on the ship.  
"There really isn't much to say. Sideways had us tied up, threatened to have Starlit offline me when she was reprogrammed, and then attempted to reprogram her. It's not permeant, is it?" The yellow mech seemed worried about her condition. Honestly, we all were.  
"I'm not sure." Our leader looked upset about this whole ordeal.  
"This is my fault. I should have never let her come with us." I clenched my hands in to fists.  
"You couldn't have known that this was a trap, Prowl. None of us saw it coming." Prime gave me a sad smile.  
"How was it he was able to sneak up on you?" Bulkhead asked.  
"I…really don't know. One click I was looking into the warehouse, the next I was on the ship. I…think I remember seeing his refection in the glass…" the yellow mini bot thought out loud.  
"I've got good news and bad news…" Ratchet said as he came back out, cutting the yellows mechs rant. I noticed Starlit was nowhere in sight. "Good news is, her processor is not fried and I was able to temporarily contain the bad code. The bad news is, in order to purge the code completely, we need the device he used, along with the computer system."  
"Well, we have half of that at least." We all turned to Bumblebee as he pulled a cybernetic looking crown out of his subspace. "I didn't want him using it again, so I took it." I was proud of the annoying yellow bot. He actually used his head for once.  
"Good work Bumblebee. Now we have to figure out how to get back on to his ship to reverse what he has done." Prime praised.  
"I…may have an idea." We all turned to look at Starlit, who appeared in the door way. I noticed her optics had switched their colors. Before her right optic was red but now her left was red while the right was green  
"You aren't supposed to be up yet!" Ratchet barked.  
"I-I know, but I might be the key…to getting back on his ship." She sounded like her systems were straining just to keep her talking. "He said…I would find him. M-meaning I might have his…ship coordinates." She had a point. How did he expect her to find him, unless he embedded the coordinates somewhere in the code.  
"You're not going alone."  
"And you two aren't going to be the only ones going." Optimus put a hand on my shoulder. "We will all be going."  
I was glad to have a team to support us in this situation.  
"It's settled. As soon as Ratchet traces the code, we head out." Prime stood. "Ratchet?"  
"Already on it Prime." The red and white medic took Starlit back to the med bay.  
"The rest of us, be ready to head out at a moment's notice." We nodded. We had no idea how long we had to get prepared, so we wasted no time and headed to our rooms to refresh, refuel and recharge.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, Starlit and the voice in her head are supposed to be bold and itallics, but for some reason it's not? Sorry guys...

Starlir's View:  
I awoke to a strange beeping noise. Before I could even fully online, a red flash came across my HUD of some numbers before quickly disappearing. That was weird. I thought to myself as I got up. I rubbed my optics and heard the door slide open and hurried footsteps coming towards me.

"Starlit, Ratchet has located the coordinates. We must hurry." Prowl said when he got to me.

"Yeah...I think they kind of flashed in my HUD too." It was strange that they seemed to happen simultaneously.

"We'll question that later." I heard the worry in his tone but there wasn't any time for that.

Everyone was gathered in the main living area, all ready to go, determined to do this quickly and ready to put up a fight. I felt a swell of happiness run through me at the thought that everyone really did care and was willing to help me out. Oh joy, the Autotbots are going on yet another attempt at saving you. You can't win, you know. He will stop you. Shut up. I told the voice.

"Alright, looks like Sideways is just outside the city limits." Optimus reported. While he was going over the plans, I looked at the coordinates on the top left of the screen and noticed something wrong from the ones I had just seen.

"Wait..." I stepped forward and took a better look. I pulled up the numbers that had appeared on my HUD and compared the two.

"What is it?" Bumblebee asked.

"The coordinates are different from the ones I have." I said, pulling up a new screen and putting them into the computer. "There  
."  
"But, that looks like an empty field." Bulkhead stepped forward and took a closer look. "Why would he send you there?"

"So which one is the one we need!?" Bumblebee worried out loud.

"I'm not sure...but...this one seems to be where he's going to be." I couldn't tell them why, but the field was where I wanted to go. You know it's a trap, right? The voice scoffed. And if not, Bulkbrain has a point for once. Why would Sire send us there? I had to agree, it felt if-y but I was drawn to it. "He's there." I said just barely above a whisper.

"Then what's the other one?" Prowl asked me.

"Um...his ship?" I shrugged. I had no clue. "Maybe a decoy?"

"Well, whatever it is, we need to investigate. We'll split into two teams. Bumblebee, Prowl, Starlit and I will head outside of town and find that open area. Bulkhead, you and Ratchet will figure out what the other place is." Optimus called out. "Autotbots, roll out!"  
\--------------------------------------------------------  
The whole time the voice talked and complained that it didn't have a good view of Bee's bumper. One comment was so bad I did not ever want to think of it again. It had to do with her sick fascination of his bumper and tried to take over so she could nudge against it. She liked to taunt the fact that she knew I liked him and would/could use it against me.  
Ugh, you are so slow! More your aft Prime! Thought this was some kind of emergency thing... that was one of the better ones I heard. Thankfully Prime came between us when I got too close.  
"I know you're new at this driving thing Starlit, but you need to stay back a bit from other bots." He warned. If only he knew I wasn't my inexperience that was causing it.  
"Sorry!" I said, too fast.  
"Starlit, what's wrong?" Slag it Prowl! I felt my control slip and she took over again.  
"What? Ever heard of..."  
"Shut up..." I cut her off, not realizing I had said that out loud.  
"Starlit, was that you?" Prowl asked, coming up from behind me.  
"No..." I felt defeated.  
"Great, it's getting worse." He muttered to himself. "Try your best to keep it under control."  
\---------------------------------------------------------  
As we got closer to our destination, I had to fight harder to keep her at bay. For some reason she was getting stronger. I told Prowl over our bond something was up. He told me to let him know if it got any worst, and not seconds after that, I lost control.  
That hazy feeling came over me, and I was helpless in my own body. She took control and speed past everyone, laughing maniacally as she did.  
What are you doing?! I cried.  
"Oh hush, daddy dearest is waiting." She was openly talking to herself? What a freak. "I can hear your mean thoughts. I'm not crazy, there is two of us in one body...for now." I didn't want to know what that meant.  
We got to where the signal was, beating my friends by quite a bit. Both of us knew Bee would be the first one to get here. Honestly, I was surprised he wasn't already. He was pretty fast.

"There you are..." What looked like a metal disk was laying in the tall grass. Once she picked it up, I could see it had a flashing red light on it, but couldn't figure out what it could be. "This my "sister" will make sure you can't take over again." she took out a plug from the device and plugged it into my/her wrist. The flow of data was over whelming. Information about Decepticons and the set of coordinates that Bulkhead and Ratchet were going! I tried to call but found a bunch of error messages around me. I...I was left as a small data code in my own processor! I couldn't control my body...all I could do was watch from a cage with in my own processor as a horror movie played out in front of me.

"No! Stop this!" I called but my body didn't move or make a sound, not until she laughed.

"I did it...I have control!"  
\-------------------------------------------------  
Bumblebee's View:

"Starlit?" I called after her, but she didn't answer. I ignored Prime yelling at me to slow down and wait, I took off after her. She's in trouble, I just know it!  
When I got over the ridge, I saw her crouched down on the ground, shaking with her head bowed towards the ground.

"Starlit!" I transformed and ran towards her but stopped about ten feet from her. That's when I heard, not sobs, but laughter. "Star?" I stepped back as she slowly turned and lifted her head.

"Bee...I'm free..." Her voice was wrong, it was like two voices talking at once. One was Star's normal voice while the other was low and sounded like a warped tape being played. Her optics were also both red. Oh slag...

"Gah!" I cried as she suddenly stood and lunged herself at me. I dodged her first attack but wasn't so lucky the second time. The punched my right in the tanks and pinned me on my chassis. "Starlit, stop! This isn't you!"

"But it is me...I'm finally allowed to be the real me. Don't you see, I'm the real Starlit." the smile on her face was the stuff of nightmares. "She was really fond of you, you know. I, on the other hand, am not..." I heard her wrist blades extend and felt the tip of one tickle the back of my neck.  
I didn't know what to do. On one hand she was a Con, on the other, she was still my friend. At least...she looked like her anyway. And I knew she was still in there. She couldn't have deleted her entirely just yet. There was no computer around. My spark dropped though when I saw the sun reflect off of something in the grass.

"No...you deleted her?!" I yelled, the other blade was shoved into the ground right in front of my optics. I had made her mad, but not enough to kill me.

"I can't yet...she's currently part of my processor core. Without her I can't intake air or walk...at least until I get decent equipment to work with." Her voice was starting to go back to normal, but a little lower than before. "Besides, I want her to see me shred you to pieces before I let her go."

"Starlit!" Both of us looked too see Prowl and Optimus had arrived. It was hard for me to see them, with the blade and her pushing me into the ground and all, but I could hear them transform and come towards us.

"Wait! It's not her anymore!" I warned, though they could already tell by her optics. I felt more pressure from the blade at my neck. "Ok, easy...why do you want to kill me?"

"Hm...for fun I guess." Star's evil grin was going to be imbedded into my memory for ever. It would be innocent coming from Starlit, but the murderous intent behind it and in her optics right now...

"Let him go." Prime was trying to stay calm but no one really knew what to do.

"Or what? You'll hurt me? You wouldn't do that to a friend." She never took her optics off of me as she spoke. I had to get her off of me, but I needed a distraction.

"You're not our friend!" I shouted. "You're just a...wait what are you?" Was she a bad code, a download or a new data format put into Star's body?

"Let's call it an upgrade and leave it at that..." She raised her blade and was posed to hit me right in between the optics when Prowl grabbed her, looping his arms under hers and locking his hands behind her head.

"Starlit, you have to fight this!" I heard Prowl say as I scrambled to get up.

"She's...not here!" She broke his head lock with a strength I had never seen her use, but she was unable to dodge Prime's grappling hook that wrapped around her, pinning her arms to her body.

"I don't think she's able to get through any more..." I handed the device to Optimus. "She used this on herself."

"It must have held the rest of the data for a complete download." He finished my thought. "Prowl, is there any way to reach her?"

"I can try, but I'm not sure it will work." The ninja bot approached and tried to put his hand on her temple but she lashed out.

"You think you're processor over matter will work?" She scoffed. "This time I have control. She's locked away in here, forced to watch as I destroy you!" She moved her arms as much as she could and got the rope to move just enough to be cut by her blades. Prowl dodged her attack but still wasn't attacking her.

I made up my mind and told myself this wasn't Starlit and attacked her from behind. I used my stingers to try and stun her. It worked, but not long enough to do much.

"You..." She grabbed my arm, twisted it behind my back and pointed her blade to my throat. "You die first!" As the blade came close to my energon line, she froze. She seemed stunned by this. "No...I blocked you!" It took me a second to think what she meant but then it clicked.

"Starlit..." I said in shock. "Guess you don't have her under control!" I smirked. "No way was she gonna let a Con take control!"

"Shut it...I can still do this!" She took a hold of my other arm and put her foot on my shoulder struts and pushed hard enough to pop them out of place. The pain was excruciating. My arms felt like they were on fire. She let me fall to the ground and without any way to catch myself, landing pretty hard on my face. "Pathetic..."  
She used this to distract the other two and transformed, heading back the way we came.

"Bumblebee!" Optimus called to as he ran to me. "Prowl, chase after her! I'll get Bee."  
I don't think Prime had to tell Prowl what to do. He was already transforming before he called my name.

"This might hurt, but bear with me." He helped me up and popped my right shoulder into place. And I thought it was bad when they were out of place. "Breath Bumblebee. I'm sorry, but this has to be done."

"Does it really though?" I mumbled through the pain. Before I had the chance to talk, he did it to my left side. I fell into his chest, crying out in pain. "Please stop!"

"It's done! It's done..." He tried to console me. "Can you transform?"

"Y-yeah...but I'm not sure I can really fight." My arms were not responding to more than flexing my hands. I even had a warning flashing in my HUD that some of the sensors were completely out of place and couldn't feel the very tips of my fingers.

"That's ok. Hopefully we won't have to fight."  
\--------------------------------------------------------------  
Prowl's view:

I followed her as close as I could without being detected. She seemed to be heading the direction where Ratchet and Bulkhead were sent. I commed Optimus and relayed this information.

"How close are you?" He asked.

"About twenty minutes away from their location." We seemed to be going into the older parts of the city. "I'll keep you up dated," I hung up and tried to remember what was out here. From what I remembered, it was mostly old factory buildings.

After a while, she stopped in front of one of the old buildings. She transformed and went in through the rusted steel doors. I transformed and tried to find another way in. I found one on the roof. There was a hole where some windows used to be and slipped in. I noticed outside that there was a strange orange glow coming from inside, but now I could see where it was coming from. There were at least six vats of molten iron below me. Sideways must me here.

I leapt down, keeping to the shadows as I did and looked around for any signs of life. Ratchet and Bulkhead should be around here somewhere.

"The slag you want from us any way?" I heard the old medic's voice from down a hall in the far back. I quietly crept up to the opening to listen in.

"It's not me that wants you. It's Megatron. Apparently he wants to make you and your team mates pay for the trouble you caused." My Sire's voice echoes off the walls. Oh no, he caught them. I had to think quickly. I heard footsteps and jumped up to the catwalks above the vats to hid from whoever it was. I would have the advantage from this point.

Ratchet walked out first, hands in the air, followed by Bulkhead and finally my Sire. He had his gun pointed towards them and was marching them up to a boiling vat.

"If I had it my way, you'd be dead by now." He growled.

"Sire, is that any way to treat guests?" My spark sank as Starlit walked out from the hall. Her optics looked blood red in this lighting. She apparently helped capture them.

"Why Starlit? Why are you with him?" Bulkhead sounded angry. Whatever she did had broken the green bots spark.

"I told you, Starlit isn't here." She sighed. "What's it gonna take to get that through you thick head?"

"Now, now my sparkling, they'll be gone soon enough. Now where are the others? I was expecting Prowl to be here by now."

"I ditched those glitches in the forest. Why do you care where Prowl is?" Sire suddenly turned on her, anger written on his face.

"Because you and your brother are mine! No Autobot scum is going to turn my sparklings against me! We're Decepticons through and through! And I'm going to show both of you that it's your true nature." He had her backed up to the edge of one of the vats. She was terrified of him, but the reprogramming kept her from trying to get away. For a nano click, I swear I saw her right optics flicker green again. Maybe I could use her fear of him against him.

"Yes Sire..." Starlit said weakly and he backed off.

"I see the program has a bug." He cupped her cheek in a semi affectionate way. "Don't worry, we'll fix that later. For now, what shall we do with them?" The moment he turned his attention away, Starlit had a murderous look aimed toward him. So she didn't like him. What was her motive then?  
At that moment, Optimus came in with Bumblebee not far behind.

"You were saying Prime?" I heard Bees snarky comment.

"What good timing." Sideways grinned. Star moved toward them, a smirk on her face.

"Though you were down for the count." She extended her blades. I moved quickly and got there just in time to block her attack. "Prowl..." She growled.

"And here I thought you'd never show." Sire aimed his gun at Bulkhead. "Now then, let's have a chat, shall we?"


	17. Chapter 17

Starlit's view:

I needed a way out of here, but it wasn't going to be easy and I could already feel my strength fading. I was now considered a virus in my own body and had been locked behind a strong fire wall. My last try at breaking out had made the evil coding even more paranoid and alert to what I was doing. The weak point I had exposed was now gone, and I had to quickly try to find a new one before she hurt someone. I wasn't in control long enough to know if she had hurt Bee or not.  
'You should just give up and give into you fate.' Her voice sounded from all around me.  
"I won't let you hurt them!" I sounded much smaller and weaker than I meant to. Slag, was I fading faster than I thought? I had to somehow gain control back, even if it was only long enough to tell them to run.

"Make you a deal, I'll let you watch your friends be melted down for scrap before I get rid of you."   
"I'll stop you before you get the chance." My last hope was to try processor of matter, but I was nowhere near as good as Prowl or Jazz. I sighed and concentrated, trying to focus on breaking the fire wall cage I was trapped in. I tried to remember what Prowl told me to do, but my memories were being affected as well. "Picture it…focus on it and…" and what? I couldn't remember.  
"There will be nothing left of you soon. All I have to do is wait for your own anti-virus systems to weaken you, then I can delete you for good." She laughed.  
\-----------------------------------------------------------  
Prowl's View:  
"Let them go." I glared at the crazed gold and black mech. "It's me you want." He grinned but didn't lower his gun.

"Starlit my dear, is that any way to greet family?" Sideways cooed. "Lower you blades and let him pass." Starlit growled at me but listened to him, lowering her blades but didn't put them away. I didn't listen and choose to stay where I was.

"Come now Prowl, I won't hurt them. That is, if you agree to come with us." He held out his free hand in a "friendly" gesture. "You want to be a family again, don't you?"

"You expect me to come with you after everything you've done? You killed our creator, had Starlit hunted down like some convict and now you've reprogrammed her, just so you could pretend we're a family. You're insane, more so than I thought." Starlit briefly had a look of anger when I mentioned our creator.

"You don't understand, Prowl. Your creator took you from me. She wouldn't let me see you, told both of you I was bad and warped you minds."

"The only one I see with a wrapped mind is yours." Bumblebee lunged but Starlit quickly blocked him, her blade inches from his neck.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." She smiled.

"Starlit, come on! Snap out of this, this isn't you! Please…you gotta fight this." He pleaded with her. It wouldn't work, the programming had taken over and she could no longer hear us.

"Your Starlit is gone!" She retracted her sword and punched him hard enough to knock him back into the wall behind him. "Get it through your processor." She turned away and went back towards Sideways. I had to stop this. One way was to try to get close enough to grab Starlit and get out of here, but that wouldn't stop Sideways from returning. He had to be taken down first.

"I'll go with you, on one condition. You let the others go." The others looked at me like I had lost my mind.

"Prowl!" Bee cried. "Are you crazy?!"

"No, let him go. It's his choice." Optimus made optic contact with me and I understood. He knew I had a plan in mind.  
I had to be quick, he was close enough to a vat that I could easily knock him into it; but if he caught on, he could easily throw Starlit in instead.  
Once I was close enough I sprang into action, I pushed Starlit away and kicked Sideways hard in the chassis. Unfortunately, he seemed to have anticipated an attack and launched himself off the side of the vat with his hands into the cat walks above. Slag it all!

"Grraww!" Starlit cried and came after me, just like I wanted her too. She may have gotten a battle upgrade from the download, but she was still wasn't strong enough to take me down. I easily caught one of her punches, spun her around and pinned her arm behind her back. I had her trapped at least while the others tried to find Sideways.  
"I know you are still in there…" I struggled with her. "You have to fight it Starlit! Picture you self in a peaceful place. Now focus on the energy around you and use that energy to free yourself."

"She can't hear you." She laughed evilly. But she did…  
\-----------------------------------------------------  
Starlit's View:

I had broken through just enough to be able to hear what was going on. Thankfully she hadn't felt it yet. I had heard my brother agree to something but it wasn't clear enough for me to tell what. Not a few clicks later, Prowl seemed to have a hold of "me" and reminded me what to do. I refocused myself and pushed the energy around me against the firewalls and watched them crack with the force. It wasn't much, but it was a start.  
I faintly heard Prowl humming and knew he was trying to help as well. With him helping me now, there was still a chance I could get out of here.  
\--------------------------------------------------  
Bumblebee's view:

While Prowl was trying to get Starlit back, the rest of us searched for the 'Con. Prime and I went into the catwalks while Bulkhead and Ratchet searched below. It was really dark up here but we didn't dare turn on our lights. Sideways would be on us in a nano-second! So the only light I had to work with was the glow from the molten iron below.  
"Slag I would not want to fall into that…" I muttered to myself. This mech was insane if he filled six vats just to melt us down to get his sparklings. Wait…six? He really only needed one…unless he planned on making us watch as we were all slowly dropped in, helpless to help each other! I pressed a finger to my temple and called Prime.

"This guy wants us up here!" I whispered. "I think he plans on dropping all of us in and torturing us while doing it."

"And you'd be correct." A deep voice said from behind me. I cried out as he grabbed my back plating and dragged me towards a part of the walk way that was over a vat. "You just can't seem to keep your mouth shut…I think I'll just drop you now and have fun with the rest. I'm sure Starlit will forgive me. She really wanted to do this herself."

I struggled but I couldn't get a good angle to zap him or enough traction under my peds to kick away. My arms were still weak from earlier as well. I was slagged. As we got to the edge, Optimus came up from the left, but stopped when Sideways lifted me up, dangling me over the boiling vat. My spark felt like it was in my throat and I tried to grab his arm to keep him from letting go of me. This was not how I imagined going out…

"Prowl! This is what happens when you don't listen!" Sideways boomed.

It felt like everything was in slow motion as he let go, I screamed as my arms reached out for anything to grab, and to my surprise I felt a hand grab mine as Sideways tumbled over me. I twisted my body so I could grab with both hands and saw my savior.  
"Starlit?" I gasped. It was her but…her optics were still red.

I looked down in time to see the horror of what happens when a bot is melted alive. Sideways hit the vat, forcing the three bots below to dodge the splash. His screams were quickly distorted as his vocals melted. The last thing to go down was a hand desperately reaching for the edge.  
"Hold on." I looked back up to Star. That creepy two tone voice was back, but the higher pitched voice was dominant this time. She was struggling to keep herself from being dragged off the edge with me. Unfortunately, she had to lean over the bent rail to catch me but was now unable to pull me back up. Thank Primus Optimus was there or else we both would have been scrapped.

He grabbed her waist and pulled back, allowing me to grab the railing and climb back up.  
"How…how did you get up here? And…who pushed him. And how…I mean are you…you?"

"I saw he was about to drop you in the iron. I was able to get up here in time because of Prowl." Down below I saw Prowl. His processor thing must have worked. "I had to get to you…" So she pushed him, not Optimus? "I was able to create a crack in the fire wall big enough to break through. I'm not sure how long I have till she take over again…"

"Everyone is alive thanks to you." Prime put a hand on her shoulder. I knew though, after everything was corrected, the guilt of killing her own Sire could haunt her.  
\----------------------------------------------------  
Prowl's view:

Ratchet, Starlit, Bumblebee and I went back to the base while Bulkhead and Prime cleaned up the mess at the plant. They were the best equipped to handle the molten iron. Before that, we found Sideways' ship where Starlit had found the chip. Finally Ratchet was able to complete the programming that would change her back.

I was still in shock at Starlit had been able to do what she did. Not only had she broken through the strong firewalls surrounding her, but the speed and skill she used…She had kicked Sideways first and had twisted him an a way that she was also able to grab Bumblebee's hand when she landed. I wouldn't have believed that she did it if I hadn't just seen it. That raw power she held hadn't been seen since Yoketron. I'd need to discuss this with Jazz. If she really did have this kind of power, we needed to help her hone and contain it.

"She's resting for now." Ratchet came back to the living room. He had been clearing Starlit's processor and ridding her of the reprogramming virus. "There may be a small problem, however."

"What do you mean?" Bee asked.

"The virus not only tried to delete Starlit but everything that she was. That included her memories." He bowed his head. "I don't know what has been lost, but some of the files were so corrupted, they couldn't be saved. She may suffer a permanent memory glitch because of this as well."

"You mean…she might not remember who we are? Or…anything that's happened?" Bumblebee was distraught by this.

"How long until we know?" I stood from my lotus position. "May I see her?"

"She should wake up soon. I must warn you, she's missing the front panel of her helm. I have her hooked into a scanner to find any other damages."  
\------------------------------------------------------------  
Bee wanted to visit as well, but Ratchet said it was best not to over whelm her processor right now. Only one bot was allowed in the room at a time. I took a deep intake, preparing myself for the worst and opened the door. She was still offline when I entered. It was a bit of a shock seeing her without front panel of her helm.

I gently stroked her cheek with my thumb.  
"I'm sorry…I couldn't protect you. I…I tried…" I told her. "If only I had been there…"

"Prowl?" I looked up and saw she was staring at me.

"Starlit." I sighed happily. "You're awake."

"What…happened?" She looked around, confused about where she was.

"Do you remember fighting Sideways?" I asked. She looked back at me with a blank look. Ratchet was afraid of this, afraid that some of her memories would be corrupted. "What do you remember?"

"I…remember Sideways had me on his ship with Bumblebee. But…I don't remember anything else. How long have I been out?" So she didn't remember the fight or any of the last few days.

"I see…" I looked to the floor, torn between telling her everything or lying to her about somethings. "Sideways is gone. You won't have to worry about him anymore. Ratchet was also able to bring you back to your old self." I proceeded to tell her there was a chance she would never remember what happened, but she was now safe from danger.

"Did…I hurt anyone?" She asked.

"No. You never hurt anyone." I lied. What else was I to do?


	18. Chapter 18

Prowl's View:

Starlit was released after Ratchet made it clear she was not to leave her room for the rest of the night and she was to stay in the base. For the next two weeks she was to be confined indoors. He hoped staying in a familiar place would help keep her calm and keep any glitches from happening. He'd run more tests tomorrow, but for now she needed to rest. I knew that it was really hard to keep her locked up. We had no idea if she really was truely back to her old self or not yet either. Ratchet was afraid to probe her processor too much more until her system had the chance to heal.

It was also unclear what she remembered but we had confirmed she didn't remember anything about the last few weeks. She remembered Sideways kidnapping her the second time but so far nothing else after that. She thankfully remembered who we were, but there were some gaps in what she remembered about each of us. She also seemed to have forgotten her crush on Bumblebee. She didn't flinch or blush when he sat on the berth with her.

For the rest of the night I was awake with thoughts and worries of what she did and didn't remember. Mostly, I worried if she remembered our Creator. It broke my spark to think she might forget about her and her teachings and never truly achieving her goal of becoming an engineer. Starlit had once confided to me she might follow Nautica's footsteps and continue her work. But now, there was a chance she could be stuck on a repair crew for the rest of her life because of what Sideways had done.  
I also worried that she might remember that she was to one who killed him. She had a genteal spark and never really had a mean streak. It would crush her to know she'd taken a life, even if they deserved it.  
I clenched my fist in anger. He may have been offline now, but the damage he had done unfortunately hadn't gone away with his death. At least for now, she was safe.  
\------------------------------------------------------  
Starlit's view:

I laid in my berth and stared at the wall. I have no idea how much time passed as I laid there; I was trying to scan my memory files to see what I remembered. I remembered everyone, my brother, his team, Sari and Nautica. Nautica was Prowl's and my creator...she was murdered by our Sire. I was brought to Earth because of that and met everyone here. Up till the point we met Sideways the second time was pretty clear, the rest…was fuzzy.  
Did I threaten everyone? Was the faint feeling of dread because I hurt someone, or something else? Prowl had been rather vague about everything, but maybe he didn't want to overload my processor with everything. I hoped he wasn't hiding anything from me.

After a few cycles, I blinked and snapped myself out of my daze. I rolled over and looked towards the ceiling. I wasn't tired, though I should be and something nagged at me to apologize to Bumblebee. Did I hurt him? I don't remember seeing dents or marks on him from earlier. So what was this feeling? Then I kind of remembered something; I remembered him being against a wall, but why did I have him pinned? I guess it didn't matter too much, except he…had kissed my cheek!? At least I remembered something and I intended to figure out what that was about!  
\-----------------------------------------------------------  
The base was quiet. Everyone was in their sleeping quarters for the night, but knowing Bee though, he was still up playing games. Now was the perfect time to ask him. Prowl wouldn't get in the way this time.

I just have to ask him! It won't be that hard…I told myself and started towards his room. "Bee, we need to talk"…no…"Bumblebee, did we...did we kiss?!" Primus no! This is gonna be harder than I thought…I was thinking too hard to notice I ended up in front of his door and had knocked already. Good one… I had no idea what to say.

"Come in!" I heard him call. I took a deep breath and opened the door to find Bee playing some kind of dancing game. I'll admit I got kind of caught up in watching him. I blushed a bit after realizing I was staring to long and went to sit on the arm of the couch in his room. What's wrong with me?  
He stopped the game and came to sit by me. "What's up?" He sounded a little worried.

"Um…I remembered something." I admitted, now the hard part. "It had to do with us." I watched his optics brighten a bit.

"Oh yeah? Did it have to do with when I beat you in a race? Or when you first saw my awesome moves?" I could tell he was hedging around something.

"No. I'm not sure where we were but…" Here it goes. "You…kissed my cheek?" The blush one his face told me he remembered.

"Oh…that one…" he looked nervous. "Do you…uh…remember any of it?" I shook my head. "Well…basically it was…well you admitted your feelings…in a slightly unconventional way and I…wanted you to know it was ok and I liked you too." By the time he was done, his cheeks were bright red.

"What do you mean unconventional?" And feelings?! Oh slag… That was apparently pretty embarrassing but he sighed and told me.

"Prowl told you about the reprogramming already so…you know. Uh…you were kind of reprogrammed but you...told me how you wanted to... get fragged by me." He was looking at the floor now, avoiding looking at me.

I was so embarrassed that I had even said something like that! My face felt hot and I felt like my processor was about to crash.

"But I knew it wasn't the real you!" Bee quickly looked back up to reassure me and put a hand on my knee. "And like I said…" I put my hand on his.  
"Star…I like you, more than a friend and I hope you do to." He was finally able to look me in the optics as he said this. He leaned in a bit, silently asking to kiss me.  
I leaned in with him and we kissed. He cupped my cheek with one hand and deepened the kiss. I remember kissing one other time, I don't remember with who, but I was still pretty new to it. Bee had to reteach me on what to do, and taught me how to use my glossa while kissing.

His glossa slid over mine, asking me to join. I was hesitant at first. He was obviously skilled at this and I didn't want to fail. He encouraged me by running his thumb over my cheek. I followed his lead and after a few awkward kisses, I got it down. I had no idea kissing could be so…nice. I don't know when it happened but I ended up in Bee's lap, straddling his hips. We broke the kiss and blushed at our position.

"Umm…" Bee laughed nervously. "M-maybe we should call it a night." He was stopping this from going too far.  
Without really thinking I said "What if I don't want to?" I bit my lower lip and looked away shyly. I can't believe you just said that…I sighed to myself. I could cause myself to glitch doing this!

"T-Then we don't have to." He made me look back at him. "Are you sure though?" His optics had dimmed a bit, but the sincerity in his optics shined through. He would stop if I asked.

"Yes." I felt completely safe with him, and I wanted nothing more than to be with him right now. He motioned for me to get up so he could move.  
Wordlessly he got up, took my hand and led me to his berth. He had me sit and gently pushed me down to lay on my back. He kissed me once before running his hand down my right side, testing if this was all ok. I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him down to kiss me again. I accidentally brushed the horns on his helm with my finger tips while we kissed. Apparently these were pretty sensitive and caused Bee to break the kiss and gasped. I shivered, wanting to draw more sounds like that from him. I gave it a gentle pinch and felt him shiver against me as he bit back a sound.

"Star…please…they're really sensitive." He begged.  
"I won't hurt you." I purred and ran my thumb over the other, making him shiver again. He moved to kiss my neck, allowing me to stroke his right horn while my other hand was free to run up his side.  
\-----------------------------------------------  
Bumblebee's view:

For being inexperienced, Starlit was a quick learner. She'd already figured out my audio horns were a hot spot. It took my last partners forever to figure that out. Not…that I had that many.

Her other hand was really close to another but she kept ghosting over it. She needed to learn her own before she could find mine. I mimicked what she was doing to me on her, but dipped my fingers into her seams, stroking her sensor nodes inside. She moaned and bucked her hips into mine when I hit one in her hip seam and nipped her main energon line at the same time.  
She caught on and dug her fingers a bit deeper and started finding my sensor nodes.

"There…mm…yes Star like that." I encouraged her. "Ow…not too deep."

"Sorry!" she stopped, which I didn't want her to do. I didn't mean to scare her.

"No, it's ok." I looked into her optics. "Don't be so timid, you're doing fine." She blushed and smiled softly.  
After she learned how to do it correctly, I got lost in the pleasure. We could've spend the whole night exploring each other's bodies, but I could tell she wanted more. I wasn't sure if she was ready for that though. Not only that, but we risked overloading her processor and causing more damage. I didn't want to push her too far either and scare her off.  
"Star…" I said between kisses. She stopped and looked up at me, her beautiful optics had dimmed to an emerald green. "W-we should hold off. Just for now, until you're completely cleared." She looked a little hurt by this. "It's not that I don't want to do this, I'm just worried…" She nodded after taking a nano click to think about it.

I laid beside her and let her rest her head on my chassis. I guess everything finally caught up with her because she was out before I had my arm around her.  
Maybe she didn't feel safe alone. I wondered as I watched her for a click before hitting the remote control that shut my lights off. I'd deal with Ratchet's rants and everyone's judgement in the morning. I didn't want to move her back to her room. Like her, I didn't really like sleeping alone either.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------  
Starlit's View:

I was awoken by movement under me. I slowly opened my optics and saw yellow. It took my processor a few nano-clicks to reset and remember where I was. The warmth around me and under my helm was Bumblebee. I smiled softly and closed my optics again as happiness spread through my spark. After a while, Bee started to stir. He must have detected my energy field changing.  
I pretended to be asleep, holding on to the last few moments of this closeness. I felt him run his finger tips over my helm and down the back of my neck before I decided to "wake up."

"Hey." He smiled at me, voice still static laced from recharged. "Sleep well?"  
"Hm, yeah." I said and stretched a bit before cuddling back into him.  
"We should get up before someone comes looking for you." He said pressing his forehelm to mine. "I don't want you to get in trouble for staying with me."  
"Why would that happen?" I asked. It wasn't like he would hurt me.  
"Um…you and I are…um…well 'cause we slept together." He blushed.  
"What do you…oh..." It dawned on me after a second. If anyone saw us leaving his room together, they would assume we interfaced. He chuckled and kissed my forehelm.  
"Come on, lets go get some energon."  
\------------------------------------------------------  
Just because my processor's memory files weren't working right didn't mean I was stupid. As the base awakened for the day, I noticed everyone but Bee was being cautious around me. At first I thought it was because they didn't want me to glitch out, but it was Bulkhead's reaction that told me something was off. I had walked behind him going to the monitors while he was getting energon and he totally freaked. He jumped and nearly dropped his ration. It was like he expected me to attack.

"Ok, why is everyone acting weird around me?" I crossed my arms and waited for someone to answer.

"What do you mean?" Prime asked from the monitor station.

"Seriously?" I turned and gave him a look that I was tired of their slag.

"We're just worried about you is all." Optimus tried.

"Yeah! And I just didn't hear ya come up behind me." Bulkhead scratched the back of his helm. He was lying too.

"Is anyone going to tell me the truth?" I was getting angry. I saw static for a nano click and a flash of someone's face.

"Starlit, listen there's…" Bumblebee started but Optimus glared at him which shut him up.

"What are you hiding?" I looked to him back to Prime. There was tension in the air between him and Bee. The yellow mech obviously wanted to tell me something but our leader wasn't going to let him.

Bulkhead let out a stressed cry before spilling everything. "You're Sire didn't fall from the rafter like we said!" He shouted. "I mean he did but he wasn't fighting. He had Bumblebee and you came and saved him! But to do that you had to throw him off the walkway!"  
Prime looked annoyed Bulkhead had let it slip that I was the one who killed Sideways. My processor reeled and purged random clips of memories that didn't make sense. One was Sire screaming to his death, then to last night's kiss, to Creator and I making sweets and other clips that I wasn't sure if they were real or not. I guessed they were the forgotten files.

Bee ran to my side and helped keep me stabilized. "Starlit?" He sounded worried but my vision went to static again for a second which caused me to completely lose my footing and fall into his chassis. Luckily he was ready to catch me.

"No…I-I didn't…" I said as I steadied myself again. "I couldn't have…" I couldn't accept I had killed someone. At some point both Prowl and Ratchet had come in to see what was going on.

"Starlit?!" Prowl had worry laced in his voice. I'm ok…I told him through our bond.

"What happened?" Ratchet asked.

"Bulkhead let it slip what really happened to Sideways." Optimus sighed. While he was talking my vision went out again. More forgotten files flashed before my optics. One struck me and froze my spark. Creator was being raped…I was hiding in the closet again and watching in horror. It quickly stopped and turned into a flight with the jet twins. When I came too, Ratchet's light was in my optics. When did he sit me down? And when did we get to the med bay?!

"How long have the blackouts been happening?" Was the first thing he asked. He must have seen the panic on my face.

"What?" I didn't understand what was happening.

"You're memory processor is glitching. When did they start?" He was using his monotone doctor's voice on me. He only used this when he was really worried.

"Just started." I answered him as I looked around. The only bots in the room were me and the doc bot. That was odd.

"I don't want anyone causing another glitch." He answered as if reading my mind. "They're waiting out in the rec room. What do you remember?" A lot more than I thought…

"I…don't know if they're real…" I admitted.

"Not the memories kid, our conversation in the rec room." I stared blankly at him.

"Ok…it's alright. Don't try too hard. You freaked out a bit about something but wouldn't say what it was. Do you remember what made you panic?" During the memory purge the only one I clearly remembered was the one with Nautica in it.

"There was…I was watching…I sa…" He stopped me for a nano click to calm down before I told him what I saw. I hoped it was just my mind playing tricks, but it felt real.

"Oh boy…" Ratchet sighed and wiped his hand down his face in frustration. "You do know he is gone, right?" He sounded calmer and his tone was much softer as he spoke. "He can't hurt cha any more. And I suppose we shoulda told you the truth from the beginning, but we were afraid of what would happen. In fact, it happened just like I thought it would. Problem is, I can't fix it. No one can. Sideways damaged your memory core. I was just able to slow it down for a while."

I suddenly felt hollow. I'm glitched? Static filled my vision of back in school. Some mechs found out I was part 'Con and were calling me a glitched freak. I blinked and it was gone.  
"W-will I have this forever?" His silence followed by a sigh told me he didn't know.

"Kid, there's a small chance this will fix itself with time, but I don't know how long it could take. The good news is, the memory purges will start to become more common at night rather than during the day. For now, you processor is trying to gain a bit of control to contain them. For now, you cannot leave base."  
\----------------------------------------------------------------------  
As Ratchet said, my processor was just trying to gain control on the new way it worked. The next few days were a blur. Half of the time I was aware what was going on, then the next I'd be in a new room with no idea how I got there. Ratchet told me it would take some time to adjust but I wasn't sure I could live with this. I sat on the couch in Bee's room and tried to concentrate on the game Bee was playing. He wanted to get good at this new racing game before Sari came over later tonight. He said something to me but I didn't hear him.

"Huh?" I turned my head.

"I asked if you wanted to play." He was facing towards me and apparently had been trying to get my attention for a while. He looked slightly frustrated but it was slowly turning to concern.

"Sorry…" I looked away from him. I hadn't really talked to him much since I learned of my glitch. I didn't want him to get involved with me anymore. What if one day I forgot him? It would break his spark and hurt mine just thinking about it.

"What's wrong? You've been…distant." He paused the game and set the controllers down as he talked. "Are you ok?" I bit my lower lip, holding back what I really wanted to say. No, I wasn't ok! I was slowly forgetting things and remembering unimportant memories! If my core didn't start to heal on its own soon, I might not remember my friends within a few stellar cycles…

"I'm fine…" My voice was shaky. Slag that wasn't supposed to sound like that!

Bee quickly pulled me into a hug, pulling my face into the crook of his neck. I slowly wrapped my arms around him and felt coolant fill my optics. I tightened my hold on him and cried. I hadn't cried like this since I was a sparkling.

"I'm here for you, Star…" Was all he said to me as he held me. After a few clicks I calmed down a bit and he let me go but kept his hands on my upper servos. "I can't imagine what it must be like, and if I could I'd fix it for you. But I'll be right here. We all will. I won't leave you to fight this on your own." He put his forehelm against mine. New tears formed but these weren't sad ones.

"Thank you." I gently pushed against him and closed my optics. I felt safe for the first time in a long time.


	19. Chapter 19

Optimus Prime's View:

There were times when I disliked being a Prime and this was one of those times. I had to report to Central Command about Sideways, but that meant reporting Starlit as well. The moment they heard of her glitch, she'd be unqualified to do anything but be a maintenance bot for the rest of her life. I knew she was more than that; she was brilliant and had a talent for building and fixing just about anything.  
I also couldn't reveal that Prowl and Starlit's Sire was a 'Con. They'd both be taken in for questioning that would definitely reveal Starlit's problem.  
I sighed and hesitated calling them, knowing Sentinel would most likely be the one to answer. There was no way he'd listen to reason.

"Can't make the call, can ya?" I was startled by Ratchet's voice. I delayed answering in case anyone was in audio range. "It's just you and me Prime. Bee's on patrol, Bulkhead is at the tower and Starlit's training with Prowl. You and I both know that idiot won't listen." He tilted his head towards the screen.

"I know...but I have to report what happened."

"You don't have to report everything…" the old medic smirked. I sighed. "In fact you don't have to report anything if you don't want to."

"You and I know we'd be in hot water if they ever found out the truth. I can't lie…"

"But you can bend the truth." Ratchet jumped in and shook his head. "It's up to you, Optimus." He crossed his arms and stayed quiet when I hit the enter key to call Command.

"What is it now Optimus?" My old teammates angry voice came in before the screen flickered on to show his angry face filling the screen. We needed to get that fixed…  
"We need to report a Decepticon incident. Sideways…"

"Sideways?! Never heard of him. You just making up names now Prime? We got them all last time we came." He cut me off. Actually Lockdown caught some of the left over Starscream clones, Blitzwing, Lugnut and Swindle, who'd been in stasis lock for a while. Besides that, they had all escaped capture...under his watch.

"There was one we couldn't track. He may have been working with Lockdown to avoid capture." I was already tired of listening to him. "That doesn't matter now. Sideway's was taken offline."

"You're supposed to capture them not kill them Optimus!" He growled.

"I know, it was...an accident. He fell into an iron vat. He intended to use them on us but luckily wasn't able to. He was here after Starlit. Apparently he wanted to reprogram her and use her against us." This got Sentinel's attention. "He succeeded, but we were able to bring her back. She will be ok after some time, but the 'Cons seem to be experimenting with reprogramming bots." I left out as much as I could, but I knew he'd ask why Sideways would want her.

"Thanks for the intel, we'll keep an audio out for anything more about it." He said and cut the call. I was stunned. He didn't ask his usual amount of questions about a situation.

"Well that was easy…" Ratchet spoke up again when he knew it was safe.

"Yeah...I wasn't expecting that." It had me worried that he knew something I didn't.

"For now count it as a blessing. Her secret is safe and Prowl's along with it. Hopefully we can gain a little bit of control over her problem before they come back."

"I hope so, for her sake."  
\-----------------------------------------------------------  
Starlit's View:

The glitches seemed to be getting worse. Prowl and I were in the middle of a training match when suddenly my vision went to static and a conversation I had with Jazz flashed before my optics. Next thing I know I'm flat on my aft on the floor with Prowl hovering over me, asking if I'm ok.

"I'm fine…" It came off angrier than I meant.

"What was it this time?" He asked as he helped me up. At least he didn't yell at me for lashing out.

"It...was just Jazz and me talking." I shrugged. There wasn't more to it than that, even I don't know why my processor brought it up. "Why would my processor bring up a pointless conversation?"

"You have to remember there really isn't a reason. You processor is merely purging them in a random order."

"I wish it would stop…" I muttered, but Prowl heard it.

"I wish I could stop it, but I can't. I can try to help you work through them but…" He  
trailed off.  
I knew there was no cure, I was slagged and doomed to be a glitch the rest of my  
lifecycle. I could wish all I wanted, but there was nothing to be done for a damaged memory processor.

"You can still do what you want to do." Prowl said putting a hand on my shoulder. "You don't have to stop pursuing engineering. You don't have to…"

"I know I can do what I want, but others will stop me, Prowl…" I stopped him. "They'll only see me as a glitch." He didn't say anything because he knew it was true. Especially now that Sentinel was running things. While I was reprogrammed, apparently Ultra Magnus was attack and now the big chinned glitch head was acting magnus.

"Star...you're not a glitch."

"Yes I am!" I yelled. "I can't remember what I did yesterday because my processor was to busy purging useless memories! Just now I couldn't even block you! I know what I am Prowl, but you apparently can't accept it!" I had had enough of everyone telling me it was ok.

"You're right." He said after a click. "You do have a glitch, but you're not a glitch. You're clever, but you're processor acts up from time to time." He put a hand on the back of my helm and pushed out forhelms together. "But you're not a glitch." I understood what he meant. My glitch didn't make me who I was, it was just a part of me, a part of me I couldn't control. I closed my optics and felt coolant run down my cheek.

"I…" I couldn't think of what to say. He pulled away after wiping my tear away.

"You may not be able to control it yet, but you'll get there. I'll do my best to train you in processor of matter to help you hold them off, but it's not a cure. They will still come, but you may be able to hold them off till you get to a safe place." He motioned for me to come sit with him by the base of the tree. "Close your optics and clear you mind." He guided me to a meditative state.

The memories took the chance now that my optics were closed to flash clips in a rapid fashion. I focused on the sound of the wind and they slowed after a click or two. Prowl's calming voice then told me to feel the energy around me and try to focus that energy to one point of focus. For now, he wanted me to focus on clearing my mind to the point where not even the memories were bleeding through. Like him, I hummed to focus and soon the rooms usual silence was filled with soft hums.  
It was working. The more I focused on clearing my mind, the slower and less frequent the fragments came. Before I knew it they were gone, at least for now. It was a start at least and I felt relaxed again.  
Both of us jumped when Prowl's private computer went off. It was a call from the Elite Guard, the symbol on the screen giving it away. Prowl went over and answered the call and Jazz appeared on the screen.

"Jazz, what's wrong?" Prowl asked. From my spot by the tree I could see Jazz's worried face clearly.

"You free to talk, privately?" He gestured towards me. Whatever it was, this was serious.

"Starlit, I must cut this training short. We'll continue later this afternoon." Prowl was short with me, but I knew he was worried about whatever Jazz had to say.  
\-----------------------------------------------------  
Prowl's View:

Once Starlit was out of the room, I turned back to the worried image of my bonded.  
We were too far apart for him to tell me what was wrong over our bond, and we promised each other we wouldn't call unless absolutely necessary. In his line of work, being bonded was a huge risk and wasn't really allowed. Jazz had the Magus' approval of course, but not Sentinel's. He could force Jazz to terminate our bond, but thankfully he didn't know.

"Prowl...I-I don't know what to say...or how to so I'm just gonna say it. I'm sparked." His words to a moment to sink in.

"Y-you mean…?" I was so shocked I was at a loss for words too.

"I've known for a few weeks but I couldn' sneak away ta tell you till now." Jazz smiled. "I'm worried about SP findin' out…"  
Not only could Sentinel force us to terminate a bond, but our sparkling would be taken away as well. If our bond breaking didn't cause it to offline, they'd take it after birth to be raised away from their "defective creators."

"How far along are you?" my voice was calm, but inside I was excited and scared and...so many emotions I couldn't describe.

"Long enough I'm just startin' to show. Luckily he hasn't caught on yet but it's a matta of time." Jazz was scared and I could do nothing for him. "The twins have asked, but I haven't told them, least they let it slip…Just told them they're seeing things, but they're not stupid. They'll catch on soon if they haven't already."

"What can I do?" I asked, hoping he'd give me an answer, but I knew he was just as lost as I was.  
"Prowler, I love you, but you know as well as I there ain't much to do. I'm gonna try my best to stay low, but SP is really getting on my last nerve. It's crazy here, baby. He's got everyone so paranoid...it's not the Cybertron I want to raise our bitlit on…"  
"There is a way here. Bulkhead and Ratchet have been working on a space bridge. It will be operational soon. Can you hold on till then?"  
"I'll do my best. Send the coordinates when it's ready. It ain't safe here, even with SP's crazy laws in place."  
"I will, Jazz. Please be careful." We exchanged our final goodbyes and ended the transmission before the Sentinel could trace the call.  
My processor was reeling over what Jazz said. I'm going to be a Sire...But would I be better than my own? I didn't know the first thing about sparklings...  
\-----------------------------------------------------------  
Starlit's View:

The base was quiet save for Optimus tapping away on the monitor station. He was seeing if any camaras picked up any 'Con activity on Earth. Apparently the 'Cons had escaped capture and made their home base on the Earth's moon now. They were up to something, but so far we weren't sure what.  
Ratchet had left and joined Bulkhead were at Sumdac Tower working on a space bridge. Bulkhead let me see the design specks but I wasn't sure what it all meant. His handwriting was...bad but from what I could read it was a ground station made for long distance transportation. Something looked off but I'd never seen a space bridge before so I assumed it was fine. Little did I know there was a number off that caused the space bridge to transport things at random. They were trying to find Omega Supreme, which I was told was a war hero and was also the teams old space ship.  
I wanted to ask Optimus if I could join Bee on patrol but I knew the answer. "You're not ready. You could glitch out there! Bee speeds and what if bla bla bla…" I sighed, not realizing how loud it was and alerted the red and blue mech I was around.

"What's wrong, Starlit?" I couldn't tell him about Prowl's illegal comm to Jazz.

"Just bored…" I said and walked towards him, curious to see what he found. "Find any 'Cons?"I turned the chair around and sat in it backwards, resting my hands on the back of the chair and laying my head on my hands.

"Nothing. They've been away for too long and we have no way of tracking them…" He always made it sound like the 'Cons rising was his fault somehow.  
"We'd need to have an in to figure that out…" I thought out loud.  
"And we don't have one as of now." He sighed. "I thought you were training with Prowl. Did...something happen?" Optimus implied I had glitched.  
"No, actually it's helping." Now that I thought of it, I hadn't glitched in about thirty clicks! A record. "Prowl…" I stopped myself. "Said we should stop for now so I don't get overwhelmed." I lied. I wondered if it sounded as fake as it felt.

"Well, it's good it's working then." Optimus didn't seem to catch on, but knowing him he already knew. "Did Prowl call Jazz or did Jazz call him?" Slag he was good…

"How did you.."  
"I can see who's using their communicator from here." He smirked and turned to me.

"Jazz called." I sighed. "He sounded pretty urgent but Prowl kicked me out." I fessed up; it was better than having him pry it out. He would drone on and on about truth and how valuable it was just to get me to talk!

"Primus what could be going on now?" Prime said to himself. "You didn't catch anything?" I shook my head.

"They were really quiet till they knew I was gone." At that moment Prowl walked in. He looked dazed but weirdly happy. "Prowl?" I got up and went to him.

"I'm fine...Optimus, I need to tell you something. This cannot leave this room." Prowl looked right at me.

"What is it, Prowl?" Our Prime asked.

"Jazz and I are bonded and are expecting a sparkling." Prowl said bluntly. Optimus sputtered at this but didn't really say anything at first. I was just in shock.

"H-how long have you been keeping this secret?! I...do you need time off or...Prowl why would you keep this from me?" Optimus was flustered but didn't seem too angry.

"I'm sorry, it's protocol when you bond an Elite Guard to keep it secret from everyone except the Magnus. I should have told you sooner but it wasn't till now that it became apparent we couldn't keep it quiet much longer. I don't know what to do, but if Sentinel finds out...you know what could happen."

I watched them exchange a look but I didn't understand what was going on. "What do you mean?" I asked.

"He could force us to terminate our bond and give up our sparkling." Prowl's tone was cold.

"You mean...take it offline?" Prowl's visor went dim for a moment, I felt a bit of his anger through our sibling bond.

"Sometimes that does happen..but we won't let it happen to you and Jazz. As soon as the space bridge is up, I'll go in with you and we can retrieve him." Optimus promised. "Starlit, not even Bumblebee can know this." I looked to the floor. I could keep secrets just fine, but the glitch might not. It hadn't happened yet, but I could talk during a memory purge without knowing. I had mumbled something once but Prowl couldn't make it out so it wasn't a big deal, but now...I could blow it.

"I won't tell." I promised. I would keep it the best I could.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------  
Thankfully I was finally allowed out of the base the next day! I couldn't take it anymore. The stress of trying not to have a memory purge caused me to have them whenever I worried, and the last one I did say something to Bee. Thankfully the purge had been about my sparklinghood so it didn't matter. Apparly I called him creator...well I had been looking past him but thankfully the tell for my memory glitch is my optics turning white for a nano click. I was teased for it of course…  
Ratchet let me go out but I had to stay with him, which meant I went to Sumdac tower with him. I spent the morning listening to him complain about Bulkhead's writing skills.

""How the slag can you read that?! His penbotship is horrible!" Ratchet yelled at me after I read to him what a note said. I threw it behind me and walked away before I lost it.  
I walked towards the other side of the roof and looked over the city. It was pretty from up here. You could see almost all of it and in the morning light, it was beautiful. A ping rang through my audio alerting me I was receiving a transmission.

"This is Starlit." I answered.  
"It's Bee, where are you?" He sounded excited.  
"With Ratchet working on the space bridge..." I sighed.  
"Come down! Sari and I are gonna go scouting."  
"I'll try to get out of here...be down soon." I whispered. I doubt he'd notice if I snuck off. I'd take the yelling later, right now I just wanted out of here!  
\-----------------------------------------------  
Bee, Sari and I ended up cruising around the city blasting music and stopping just to hang out. We hadn't done this is a while and it felt nice to do something normal. We stopped to get ice cream for Sari and were in a parking lot when Bulkhead called Bee in a panic.

"Have you seen Stalit!?" I could hear it through Bee's audio.

"Slag Bulkhead, not so loud!" Bee chided him. "She's with me, why? She's fine! Wait...slow down what are you talking about? Space bridge...ok. Jazz is back!?" I gasped in excitement. "We'll be right there!" I had already transformed and was ready to go.  
\-----------------------------------------------  
The moment we entered, Ratchet tore into us. Called Bee irresponsible and me an idiot for going off like that. Had I glitched it could have been dangerous for drivers. I know, that's why Sari rode me...but we won't tell them that.

"Why let me out if you're gonna trap me on top of a tower while you work on a space bridge? You wouldn't even let me help, not only that you yelled any time I talked." I crossed my arms. "I didn't go out on my own, just like you told me. So I didn't break your rules."

"Ok now, let's all chill. No one's hurt, but Star you shoulda let Ratchet know at least." Jazz said from beside Prowl. I hadn't been able to see him around Ratchet. I hadn't seen him in so long, it took me a click to notice that he was just starting to show he was carrying. Ratchet mumbled in anger but let it go.  
Jazz opened his arms as I ran to him, knowing I was going to hug him.  
"Hey Sta'!" He laughed as we embraced. "How ya been."  
\------------------------------------------------------  
Prowl's view:

After the excitement settled down and everyone settled in for the night, Jazz and I were finally alone. I laid my audio against the small bump and listened to the soft spark beat. My own spark swelled with love, which transferred to Jazz to the sparkling. He chuckled.

"They love you too…" Jazz smiled. "You'll be able to talk to them soon. Their spark isn't quite strong enough yet, but it'll get there." He took a hold of my hand and guided it to his abdomen. The bump was just above the red triangle on his abdomen but it would soon too swell as the protoform grew.  
"Jazz...I-I can't express how happy I am." I said through our bond

"Me too...but slag it couldn't be at a worse time.." The black and white bot confessed. "Are we gonna be able to provide for them?"

I sat up and kissed his helm. "We will, you don't need to worry about a thing." But I worried about the same thing. Jazz and Ratchet explained what happened to them, that a Femme, Arcee, was taken by the 'Cons and they now possibly had some intel they could use, and we had no idea where they were. This could mean the end for us and it was a start to a new war. I wouldn't tell him, but I worried one of us wouldn't be there for our sparkling.


	20. Chapter 20

Starlit's View:

Jazz and I sat in awe as we watched Prowl use his processor over matter technique. I'd seen him do it before with leaves, but this was much cooler.

"Master Yoketron had it pegged. You're the real deal, Prowl. So, how come you never wrapped up your cyber ninja training?" Jazz asked him. Just before Prowl could answer Bee and Bulkhead came crashing in, obviously excited about something. Prowl lost focus and dropped the barrel. The three of us gasped and jumped out of the way as they both lost control in the oil. Bulkhead crashed into Bee, but luckily neither were hurt.

"I just picked up a signal from Omega Supreme and they're…" Bulkhead started, but Bee interrupted.

"They're on the moon, Earth's moon!" That meant...Megatron had rejoined his troops.  
\-------------------------------------------  
Back at the monitors, Prime noticed the energy signature hasn't moved since its detection.

"That just confirms Megatron has got control over Omega Supreme. I say we go rescue him and Arcee! We need to use the Magnus Hammer." Ratchet held out the weapon to Optimus. It was explained to me that this hammer was very powerful and only a true Magnus could wheld it. Optimus paused before giving his answer.  
"I...we can't use that." Optimus said firmly.  
"Then how are we supposed to take on Megatron?" Bulkhead asked.  
"We gotta even the odds somehow…" Jazz sighed.  
"We will, but not with this. I had an idea. An upgrade, something so I could keep up with Megatron."  
"Are you out of you fragging mind?" Ratchet yelled. "Autobots don't fly!"  
"What about Jetfire and Jetstorm?" Bulkhead defended.  
"And Prowl's sidecar jet pack thing? Or Starlit's boosters?" Bee asked.  
"Heck, even I have a jetpack." Sari smirked.  
"You can take my armor and study its boosters." Prowl offered.  
"And I know my dad would love to help. He's a wiz and reverse engineering." Sari said.  
"And I can help as…"  
"No, you sit this one out." Ratchet stopped me.  
"What?"  
"You've been through too much. I don't need you crashing and causing another problem on top of this." I was getting fed up always being side lined.  
"I'm fine. I want to help in any way I can."  
"Why couldn't she? She, Ratchet, my dad and I would be the best team for this!" Sari interjected. At least she got it.  
"I ought to have my processor examined…" Ratchet shook his head. That was his way of giving in.  
"Meanwhile, we'll need to find out what Megatron is up too." Optimus interjected.  
"I'll transwarp to the moon and…" Prowl started.

"And take five on you cyber ninja training? No dice. You're close to a real break through. And I gotta vibe we're gonna need every advantage we can get our servos on." Jazz told everyone then looked directly at me. "That includes you. You're coming wit' me and Prowl. I know, you wanna help, but I think you'd benefit from a trainin' session with us." I was going to interject, but he gave me a look that said there was absolutely no room to argue. My skills were best here, but he was right. We needed everyone to fight and right now, I was the weakest.

"Agreed, we'll send someone else." Prime said.  
"Who'd be crazy enough to volunteer for that job?" Bee joked. I noticed just before he did that everyone was looking at him. "Why is everyone looking at me? Why is everyone always looking at me?!" he panicked. I felt bad that he had to go. I also worried about the fact he'd be in Decepticon territory with no back up.  
\-------------------------------------------------  
Prowl suggested we go to the forest to train. It was quiet and no one was ever around. On the way there, there was this tense feeling in the air. Something bad was going to happen, but I couldn't say what it was.

"Deep intakes Sta'." Jazz came up behind me. "I know things are tense right now, but things are gonna be ok." His words were only slightly reassuring.

"Something just doesn't feel right…" I admitted. I'd felt this way since Bee was volunteered to go to the moon.

"If this is about Bumblebee, he'll be fine. He may act reckless, but he's actually quite good at sneaking around." Prowl came up from behind Jazz. It wasn't just about Bumblebee though, it was like it was in the air...like everything around me was closing in. I felt it coming but didn't have time to catch myself as other memory broke through. Someone caught me as I veered off the road.

"Calm down...it's ok…" A femme's voice said softly as she hummed softly. I must have been a sparkling. She was carrying me in her arms and rocking me as she sang.

"Starlit, you ok?" Prowl asked as he helped me steady myself back on the road.  
"So, what's going on?" Jazz asked, coming up behind us. "Did somethin' happen while I was away?"  
"I meant to talk to you about this." Prowl sighed as Jazz waited for one of us to explain.  
"Sideways messed up my memory core…" I said sullenly and started to drive again. Prowl rushed to my side and stayed there the rest of the way.  
"And of course there's no cure fo that…" Jazz's said in sorrow. "Slag I'm sorry kid."

"There's still hope. Her training with processor over matter has slowed the purges. Ratchet has also noticed that the damage has stopped spreading." That was true, the crack in my memory core has stopped expanding and possibly had healed a tiny bit.

"Well then let's get on it! How much longer till we're there?" Jazz smiled.

"We're here." Prowl stopped and transformed. "We'll walk from here."  
\-------------------------------------------------------  
"Get with it guys. The Allspark ain't just in your circuits, dig? It's groovin' all around us. Reach out, and hook yourself into it." Jazz spoke as we meditated in the woods.  
"I feel it…" Prowl said suddenly. I opened my optics when I saw a light through my closed optics. Small lights were floating around us and into the center of the three of us. Jazz and I watched in silence as the lights floated closer to Prowl and started to take shape.

"An Allspark fragment? Crazy…"Jazz said in awe.

"You forget, on this planet, the Allspark is literally grooving all around us." Prowl teased as he held his hand out to catch the fragment.

"How did you do that?" I asked as he held it up for us to see.  
"When ya focus and clear your mind, you can move the energy around you. In this case, the energy was Allspark energy and was able to manifest itself." Jazz said.  
"Since the Allspark was shattered, its energy is in the air on this planet. There are shards spread across town as well, but some turned into small particles." Prowl helped Jazz explain why the Allspark fragment formed.

"Do you think we could pull together more?" I asked.  
"It's possible, but not from here. We'd need a higher advantage point to draw them all in." Prowl put the fragment into his subspace.  
Just then we all got a ping from Bulkhead.  
"Guys, we got trouble. Megatron has Arcee's recognition code." He said.  
"Prime! We can't wait any longer! We have to rescue them now!" Ratchet yelled into the coms.  
"We should get back." Jazz said to us.  
"And fast." Prowl said as he stood. "Let's move."  
\-------------------------------------------------  
Once back at the plant, we found Ratchet repairing Optimus.  
"Ow, ow hey, easy!" Prime said as he welded his shoulder joint.  
"Serves you right for going out half cocked like that. I told you we need the Magnus Hammer." Ratchet chided him. By this point, everyone had arrived back to the plant. From Sari's account at what happened, a lot of the dents Prime had were from the first test flight. I could have told them they should have added stabilizers in the first place…

"I-I just don't feel that using it is in my programming…" Optimus admitted.

"Sometimes fate makes its own programming." Prowl commented. Prime spaced off again for a moment. Bulkhead broke him out of it by calling us to the monitors.

"I'm picking up another signature from the moon. Actually...it's three new signals. That can't be right. There must be interference from sun spots." He said as he tapped on the screen. I walked over to see he was right, but there wasn't any interference.

"I not so sure…" I said looking over the equipment.

"Woah...maybe they aren't sunspots!" Bulkhead cried over me. "They're heading this way!"  
\-------------------------------------------------  
I quickly joined the others as we ran outside to see what was coming. Optimus was the last out and was carrying the hammer.  
"Think you can still reason with Omega Supreme?" He asked Ratchet.  
It was hard to tell what was coming for us, but from the streaks in the sky, there were pretty big. Ratchet was using his medical scope to zoom in. Whatever he saw, it wasn't good.

"Not anymore…" He sighed. "We're gonna need that hammer…" As he said this, three huge purple and green bots flew low enough for us to see.  
"What in the name of the Allspark are those?!" Bumblebee asked.  
"Megatron must have used Starscream's cloning technology to make clones of Omega Supreme." Ratchet growled.  
"So...why aren't they attacking?" Bulkhead asked.  
"Maybe the full code wasn't downloaded?" I questioned. "It's possible they're being controlled in a different way. Like...a manual bypass."  
"It could be…" Ratchet started but was interrupted as the three of them shot at Sumdac Tower.  
"The tower! My dad's in there!" Sari cried.  
"The force field will protect him. We have to get the clones away and protect the rest of the city!" Optimus commanded.  
"The only hope is an aerial assault with the hammer." Ratchet told him.  
"Aren't you forgetting what happened the last time I tried to fly?" Prime scowled at the medic. "I couldn't take out Starscream's fembot clone, how can I take out three Omega Supremes?"  
Prowl activated his jump boosters. "Because I'll be there by your side." I had jump jets too, but mine weren't as powerful and I couldn't do more than keep myself aloft. "Starlit, you stay with Jazz."  
"Prowl, I…"  
"You'll be ok. I promise, it'll be alright." He said through our bond.  
"I'm going too!" Sari called out.  
"Sari…" Prime started.  
"I know, I know, it's too dangerous. It's always too dangerous."  
"I was going to say you should protect your father and fellow humans." Prime said shortly.  
"Oh...right. Sorry." Sari apologised.  
"The rest of you go with Sari. Transform and roll out!" Optimus called.  
\---------------------------------------  
I watched in my rearview mirrors as Prime and Prowl engaged the first big bot.  
"Come on Sta'. We gotta job to do." Jazz told me as he came up beside me.  
"I know…" I still had that bad feeling, but now it was intensified. "Jazz…"

"It's gonna be ok." He said with a smile. I couldn't see it in car mode but I could hear it in his voice. That's when we heard the screams of terror and quickly stopped. The Omega clones were shooting now, missing Prime and Prowl, but causing buildings and things to come crashing down. Ratchet just barely saved a woman from being crushed as we all transformed.

"Jazz, Starlit! Get these humans to Sumdac tower!" Ratchet ordered. "Right now, it's the safest place in the city."

"You heard the bot! Let's move it and groove it!" Jazz said to the humans. We split off from the others and lead them towards the tower, catching debreese and making sure no one was left behind. Before we left, I heard Ratchet call Optimus about severing the connection by going back to the moon.

As the humans were running, I watched the fight above while looking out for falling objects. I saw Prowl back off and Optimus hold up the hammer.  
"Jazz!" I called and hurried some humans along. "Optimus is about to use the hammer thing!"

"We'll be ok as long as he's got good aim…"Jazz sounded worried as he looked up. A tornado started to form and we watched as it hit the three clones. The force pushed them towards the lake and they disappeared over the tall buildings. "Hopefully that'll give us time to get ever'one out of here." I nodded, hoping that the force took at least one of them down.  
\-------------------------------------------  
Optimus commed everyone to say one was down and the other two lost their flight capability. Ratchet, Bulkhead and Bee were about to transport to the moon to sever the connection. That left Jazz and me as the last defense.

"Stay with me Sta'." Jazz said and put a hand on my shoulder. "They're two left. Prowl and OP can do this, dig?" But I wasn't so sure.

"Isn't there anything else we can do?" I asked, feeling helpless and useless. That's when the two giants stomped into the city.

"I think you got yer wish…" Jazz said as Optimus hit one with lightning.

"Prime look out!" I heard Prowl call as a plane came from behind them. The plane transformed into Megatron

"Get away from my weapons of mass destruction." He growled at us.

Jazz and I couldn't do anything but watch as Prowl and Optimus fought Megatron. I balled my fists up, frustrated that we couldn't help. They were too far away again to hear, but soon Prowl was flying back towards the clones. He must have said something to Jazz over their bond, because he suddenly got this look on his face. It was worry and something else.

"Come on Sta'! We gotta stop those clones!" Jazz transformed and started to drive towards them. I quickly did the same.  
\---------------------------------------  
Prowl was already there before us, attacking the back of one of the clones.

"You startin' this shindig without us?" Jazz said as he transformed and attacked the others foot. I squealed to a halt but didn't transform.

"Their armor is too thick! You'll never get through that way." I told them. "We'd have to attack from the inside."

"Prime! It's a bad scene down here!" I heard Jazz as I dove away from the clones foot. "These jacked up robos are still firing on all cylinders!" He was right...why weren't they shut down yet? Shouldn't the others be on the moon by now?

"The only thing strong enough to stop those clones is the Allspark. But it's scattered everywhere!" Optimus said over all our comms. That gave me an idea.

"Jazz, Prowl! You thinking what I'm thinking?" I asked them.

"Perhaps Jazz and I could use our processor over matter to bring the Allspark together!" Prowl understood.  
"You really think you can do that?" Optimus asked.  
"Do we have a choice?" Prowl flew low and grabbed Jazz's hand and flew off towards the tower.

"H-hey! Wait up!" I cried and speed towards them, avoiding the clones ped falls. Just as I avoided one, the two stopped moving. I drove a good distance away before transforming and looking towards them. "Optimus, they've stopped moving."  
"Lugnut!" I heard Megatron cry out but couldn't hear the rest.  
"Get out of there Starlit!" Optimus told me. I looked up as I heard a transformation noise and saw their faces change. I quickly complied and drove down a ditch to take cover.

"Greetings Megatron!" I heard a voice echo through the city. It was muted from my position. "..I've decided to give your clones a bit of an upgrade." I gasped as the chest plates pulled back and bombs were revealed.

"The clones are rigged with explosives!" I quickly commed everyone as the crazy bot finished his speech. I watched as even Megatron tried to stop them before turning back on Optimus. I transformed and sped towards the tower once more, only to see the force field was down. I transformed midway there, not knowing what to do.

"Oh no…" The building was still locked down at least but the two clones were gaining on me. I was about to stand off with them when I saw a light blue light fly by my helm and towards the top of the building. I looked up and saw more lights being pulled towards a glow on the roof. I smirked and looked at the clones. "You're toast now!"  
\------------------------------------  
Prowl's View:

Jazz and I made it to the top of the tower to find Professor Sumdac working on the force field.  
"Does this place have a bomb shelter?" I asked him.

"Yes, but why?" He asked. Our response was looking towards the approaching clones. "Oh...never mind." He quickly ran off to get everyone inside down to the shelter.  
I turned to Jazz and we quickly got to work on pulling the shards together. Right off the bat, we got some, but it wasn't enough. As more time passed, I realised there was no way we could pull all of them together in time.

"Jazz...what if we can't do it in time." I told him through our bond.  
"We can. Just keep going." He replied. He was just as worried as I was. I had to do something. That's when I came up with an idea.  
"I love you." I told Jazz before giving in to the pull of the Allspark.  
"No Prowl! We'll find another way!" I heard my love call. I turned to him and gave him a sad smile.  
"I'm sorry...but it's the only way. We...we can't pull it together without more power." I had to give up my spark to save him, our sparkling and everyone else.  
"Prowl please…" Jazz's plea broke my spark, but I couldn't go back now. If I did, everything I loved would be gone.  
"Give Starlit my holo-projector…I lo...love..." Was all I could get out before I lost my thoughts. I was starting to fade, becoming one with the Allspark.  
\------------------------------------  
Starlit's View:

A new ship came out of the sky and flew towards the clones. It had to be this Omega Supreme they were talking about! Ignoring a feeling that I needed to stay at the tower, I sped off towards the ship, hoping I could be more useful there than here.  
I transformed and watched from a nearby bridge as Omega started beating the slag out of the clones. He took one down but the other got behind him and blasted them.

"Hey! My friends are in there!" I called, gaining the attention of both large bots.

"Autobot in danger." Omega looked at me and turned back to the clone. "Please get away from here." I couldn't. There was nowhere to go. The clone grabbed his foot and started swinging him around, toppling buildings around me. I dodged falling debris and somehow made it to a clear space.  
I slowly got up and watched in horror as the last clone was getting ready to go off and had a red glow around them. I cried out and ducked down as a bright white light engulfed the clone and a good portion of the buildings near it. I was just outside of the field and watched as Optimus and Megatron was pulled in.

"Optimus!" I called but it was too late. I watched as Megatron pin him to the side of the barrier when a pain surged through my spark. I fell to my knees, not knowing what was going on.

"Prowl? Prowl where are you?" But I got static back and a weird feeling of emptiness. I started to panic and didn't see the explosion. I only saw the aftermath and saw Optimus on the ground.

"Optimus!" I called and ran towards him. The others came up behind us a moment later.

"Prime! The seal worked!" Ratchet cried happily.  
"The Starscream Supreme's are history! And everybody is ok!" Bee cheered.  
"Not everybody…" Jazz's sad voice sounded from over the ridge. As he came up to us, it took me a click to recognize what he was carrying.

"Prowl…" Sari said sadly.  
There in Jazz's arms was the offline form of my brother. I spark skipped a beat and my processor stalled.  
"He gave up his spark to save us…" Jazz looked like he had been crying, but was able to keep it together for now.  
"No…" Optimus started towards them but was blasted away, throwing me back into Bulkhead.

"Oof…" I cried out as I hit him. This was the final straw for my processor apparently and I was thrown into fragmented conversations with Prowl. I flicked in and out of reality, being held by Bulkhead one second and Bee another. Bee was frantically trying to get me to hear him, but I couldn't. I remember seeing Megatron fly towards us, then Prime had him on the ground in stasis cuffs.

"Starlit! Star, can you hear me?!" I blinked and looked up into Bee's worried faceplate. When did I sit on the ground? I nodded as he slowly helped me up.  
"Let's load up and get them to Cybertron." Optimus said and looked towards Omega. I glitched again and don't remember when we got onto the ship.  
\-------------------------------------------  
Bee was sitting with me in the med bay. Ratchet wasn't there right now but had been. The monitor hooked up to my arm told me that much.

"Where is he…?" I asked Bee softly. He looked at me with confusion at first.

"Jazz took him to the cargo bay. He's...Starlit…"

"I want to see him." I stopped him. "Please…" I felt the coolant in my optics starting to form.

"I...ok." He sighed. "I'll take you to him. Promise not to flip out on me?" I unplugged the monitor and gave him a playful push.  
\------------------------------------------  
The grey form before me was surreal. I knew it was Prowl, but I couldn't accept it. My processor kept locking up and I had to override it every time to keep me from going into stasis lock.

"Looks like Jazz went to get some fuel..." Bee commented but I didn't really hear him, I was focused on my brother. Jazz had put him in an old protoform case. He looked peaceful, but I couldn't help myself from getting angry at him.

A memory flickered past my optics of Prowl telling me it was ok, that he would be there when I needed him.  
"You lied…" I looked towards the floor and balled my hands up.

"Star…" Bee started but I ignored him.  
"You lied to me!" I yelled at Prowl. "You promised everything was going to be ok! Well it's not!" I felt the tears on my cheeks but was too angry to care. I don't know when I lifted my hand, but Jazz caught it, spun me around and held me close to his chassis.

"Shh…" He cooed. I instantly wrapped my arms around him and cried. "I'm sorry…" Jazz's voice was broken too as he cried into my shoulder. "I tried to get him to back down...but he told me to trust him. I should have dragged him back down…" I tightened my hold on Jazz.

"It's not your fault…" I told him.

"Prowl always had the tendency to do his own thing." Bumblebee said from beside us. "And if he hadn't, none of us would be standing here right now. I-I don't know how it is losing a sibling or bond mate...but I know it hurts to lose a friend." I looked over and saw he too had tear streaks down his faceplate. Jazz motined for him to join us and he ran to us, holding us in his arms. "I'm sorry…"

"You got nothin' ta be sorry for." Jazz patted his back. "Thank ya Bee, for being here."  
\--------------------------------------------  
Once back on Cybertron, everyone cheered for us as we exited the ship. Prime had Megatron wheeled out on a dolly and the rest of the 'Cons were in stasis cuffs. Bee, Bulkhead, Ratchet and Jazz held Prowl up in the half a protoform case with me right behind them. The cheers of the crowd died for a moment while Omega transformed and then got even louder. We were heroes to them, but I didn't feel like a hero.

The crowd didn't die down until Sentinel Prime came up to us to make an announcement. I didn't hear any of what he said. I didn't really care too. He kind of made me sick.  
The rest of the day was a blur. They took the 'Cons into custody and we all were to be awarded medals of honor for our bravery. I didn't care though. None of this would bring Prowl back. None of this was worth anything to me.

"Starlit, check it out." Bee said after the ceremony and showed me the metal he got. We all got identical ones, just different color bands. His happened to be red and gold while mine was silver and blue. I went outside before everyone else and sat on the steps. "Isn't it...Star?" He finally noticed I wasn't looking at him and had thrown mine down the steps of the council building.

"It's great…" I said, still looking down the steps.  
"What's wrong?" He asked as he sat by me.

"Really?" I looked at him dead in the optic. "You're going to ask me what's wrong, after everything that happened today?" I could feel my anger rising. "Prowl is gone! And everyone is acting like nothing happened! For frag sake, even you're acting like he's not gone!" I was standing over him now, my furry focused on him.

"I…" he sighed and stood up. "I'm sorry. You're right, we should be mourning Prowl…" He pulled me into a hug and I hugged back. "The bots here on Cybertron don't get that. They're just excited Megatron is captured and...well, they wanted to celebrate."

"We aren't heroes…" I said and let him go. He still had his arms around me in a loose embrace.

"But we are, kind of. We stopped Megatron and his plan to destroy the Earth. "

"Then why don't I feel like we are...maybe you guys are, but I'm not." I looked away but he put his hand on my cheek to face him again.

"You helped save the humans. You got them to safety. Even if you don't feel like a hero, it doesn't mean you aren't one." He put our forhelms together. "I...I don't know the pain you're going through. I won't pretend to, but I'm here for you." I was crying again, but no sound came out. He kissed my cheek and pulled me close again. "I do know that it's hard...but maybe together we can get through this." He whispered to me.  
I wasn't sure what would happen from here on, but at least I wasn't alone. I had Bee, Jazz and others from the Earth team...they were my new family.


	21. Chapter 21

Starlit's view:

We decided to stay on Cybertron for a while, while everybody tried to go back to a normal life. It wasn't easy, there was a huge gap in the team now. Everyone seemed to act like they were ok, but I could tell they weren't. Prime was promoted to temporary Magnus and burying himself in work, trying to fix what Sentinel Prime had done. It kept him too busy to think about the battle on Earth. Bee and Bulkhead also got a promotion, becoming a spy and an engineer respectively, and were busy with training. I was still considered a youngling and wasn't allowed a real promotion, but was offered free Academy training under their engineer program. For now, I had to decline.  
I could feel my memory core crashing again. Since Prowl has passed, I had started to forget things again. I first noticed when I had forgotten what I was doing in the med bay. Everything that was laid in front of me to build a new type of security camera, one that could sense a bot using a cloaking device, but it no longer made sense. I tried my hardest to get through it, to force myself to remember, but nothing came to me. I got frustrated, pushed everything off the desk and putting my hands on my helm. Ratchet saw this and quickly hooked me up to check me over, scolding me for making a racket as he did.

"Slag it all…" He muttered, the screen on his wrist was telling him something, but I couldn't see it. "You're processor is overheating 's your memory core that's the cause. I can make a patch to try to redirect the power, but…" it wasn't good.  
"What will happen?"  
"Worst case, you'll shut down and put into stasis lock. Or, you're going to lose all of your memories." He sounded guilty, but there was no help for me. I couldn't fix it, no one could. I'd lose everything or my processor would burn up, melting itself into nothing. I don't remember what else he told me, but I know I wanted to see Bee.  
\------------------------------------  
The yellow mech was at his bunker, playing a game he had brought from Earth about racing. The pause screen played in the background as he let me in. I had no idea why he didn't just race himself. The car in the game could only go around a few tracks, he could go wherever he wanted.

"Hey Star!" He grinned, but it faded when he looked into my optics. "What's wrong?" He asked as he sat by me. What was I going to say? "My processor is melting and I might not be around much longer?" No...that was too much.

"Just wanted to hang out." I was half true, the real reason was that I wanted to spend time with him before I forgot him. "Can...I stay with you tonight?" He agreed, of course, deciding that weird, old Earth movies were the cure.

"I know you don't want to talk about it, but I'm here for you." Bee said after a little while. "Is it because we're all so busy? I'm really sorry, training has been really...well...difficult. All I wanna do when I get back is recharge...but that doesn't mean..!" I cut him off, putting him into a tight hug. I wanted to kiss him, I wanted to show him what he meant to me, but it would be so unfair. "Star?"  
"I...just miss you is all." It felt horrible to lie, but I couldn't bring myself to tell him.  
"You live next door." He snorted, pulling me down to lay with him on the couch. I laid my helm on his chassis, hiding how red my cheeks were at being in this position. I had been sitting with my legs over his lap, but when he pulled me into him it made me have to straddle his lap a bit. I don't think he meant for that to happen, but then again it was Bee.

"I can't miss you while you're away?"

"I mean...sure." His voice held a laugh in it. "Didn't know you cared so much." The sudden change in tone made my spark skip a beat. I felt his hand gently lay on the small of my back, pulling me a little closer. I looked up, seeing his optics had darkened a bit.

"O-of course I do." He knew that, what was he...oh... I saw my reflection in his optics, seeing how red I had become at the realization of what he was doing.

"I know we haven't talked about our relationship or had time, but I want to make that up to you." He was red as well, but sounded far more confident than before. I felt the tips of his fingers on my back move is small circles, sending small sparks of electricity run up my spine.  
I didn't let him continue talking, knowing he could babble on and on when he got nervous and kissed him deeply. I wanted him too, but didn't trust myself not to start crying and tell him everything, so I egged him on to distract myself. I remembered his weakness, his audio horns, and quickly had him begging under me.

"S-Star...ah...no...not that." He squirmed, bucking his hips into mine absentmindedly. It was a new reaction, the last time we kissed he was able to keep control because he stopped me when I touched him there, this time he didn't stop me. I quickly found out he loved it when I gently nipped his neck cables while I rubbed them.  
"F-frag…" His motor revved as his hands roamed my frame, finding a sensitive seam to get back at me. It was my undoing, allowing him to gain the upper hand while I was distracted.

From under me, he used the leg trapped between mine to get a little leverage and gently pushed his knee into my interface panel. I moaned into his neck, not expecting the dizzying sensation. I couldn't control myself and kept rutting into his knee, holding onto Bee's shoulders for support.

"Heh, someone's needy." Bee purred into my audio receptor. "Let me take care of you…" He nipped under my chin, making me sit up a little as he shifted. "Will you open for me?" He turned my face to look at him while his other hand drifted towards my port cover. His optics were even darker now, but still held all of their sincerity. I bit the inside of my cheek, suddenly feeling nervous that he'd reject me after seeing me exposed myself. It was completely irrational, Bee wouldn't do that...would he?  
"Relax." He pulled me out of those stupid thoughts by kissing right under my left optic. "You don't have to, it's ok. I...was really nervous my first time too. Let's slow down..."  
"No...I mean...I'm just...a little overwhelmed." I didn't want to slow down or stop now. I cupped his face, putting my forehelm to his. "I want this." I took a breath as I unlocked the safeguards and opened my panel, feeling like my face was going to burn off. I watched Bee's face as he looked me over, never once seeing any kind of disgust in his features.

He pulled me into another kiss to distract me from what his hands were doing, only realising where one was going when I felt him touch my entrance. I gasped, allowing him to deepen the kiss as one finger slowly circled around my valve before pushing in.

"Slag, you're already dripping for me." It was true, the moment Bee used his knee on me, I could feel the lubricant starting to build up. "You're so tight though…" The way he said it was almost primal, like he wanted to take me right now, but was holding back. It sent shivers thought me, forcing me to lean heavily on Bee as the sensations took over. This whole time I thought Bee had been making little noises, only to now realize it was me. I tried to stop them, but Bee whined softly when I bit my lip to keep quiet.  
"Don't hold back, Star. I want to hear you…" He made a point by inserting another finger, stretching me further and grazing against my seal. I couldn't hold back the pleasured cry, bucking my hips into his hand to feel more. He shifted his hand a bit, running his thumb over an even more sensitive node and I saw stars. I heard Bee whispering sweet things to me as I came down for my first overload, slowly coming back to reality. Bee's lower half and right hand were coated in a light pink lubricant, my lubricant.

"I-I…" I felt so bad that he had barely even done anything to me.

"Hey, don't apologise." He kissed me softly, moving our positions so I was now under him. "It's your first time…" I watched in slight horror as he slowly licked off his fingers, feeling dizzy again as I watched him. He was putting on a show, purposely taking his time with each digit and moaning as he did. "You taste so good, I want more." He smirked, dipping between my legs and kissed right above my outer node. Before I could voice anything, he used his glossa to to open my valve up, pushing it inside and prodding at my seal. Bee held my hips still as he prepared me, to keep me from thrashing away from him. The nodes just behind the seal were picking up every movement he made, causing a familiar warmth to spread through me.

"Bee…" I cried his name, making him stop and pull away. I whined, missing his warmth.  
"I've got something better…" He teased me, kissing me again and making me taste myself on his glossa. I heard the telling hiss of a codpiece retracting as Bee pulled away from me. I watched him lean back a little, allowing me to see his spike. His face reddened as I openly ogled him. He was bigger than his fame let on, but not so much so that it was disproportionate. His spike was mostly black with two yellow race stripes running up the underside, accentuating the blue biolights that went through them.  
"Er…" I caught myself staring, but he was grinning wolfishly now.

"It's ok, I don't mind. You're far more beautiful...I've never seen pink biolights in anyone before." I'd take his word on that. "Are you ready?"  
"Very." I revved, pulling him down again. I felt his spike rub against my valve a few times before he lined up and slowly pushed in. It didn't hurt until he got to my seal. I was thankful that Bee took the time to loosen me and used his glossa to make a small hole in it. It would have been far more painful than it was now.

"Ah...frag…" My fingers drug down his back, leaving light scratches as I tried to adjust to him.  
"S-so tight…" Bee groaned. "You're...doing so good." He peppered kisses over my face, finally settling on kissing me deeply. After a while the pain subsided and everything was starting to feel good...really good. I rolled my hips, making both of us moan and Bee finally started moving. I had no idea there were so many sensitive nodes hidden deep inside. Everytime Bee moved, new ones were found, each deeper than the last.

"Primus…" Bee sighed, biting my neck, inciting a new sound from me. He shivered, biting the same area again and making me cry out. "Mmm…" I felt him smirk into my shoulder. "You feel so good Star, so tight and warm around me." It figures he would like to dirty talk.

"Please…" I begged, feeling the heat pool into the lower half of my body. I couldn't think straight.

"Please what?" Oh great, he wanted me to talk dirty back. "You gotta tell me…" He teased, purposely slowing down a bit.

"Bee…faster, harder, please!" I looped my right leg around his waist, pulling him closer and pushing him deeper. "Frag…" The new position made his spike hit a particularly sensitive node deep inside. He took that as his que to quicken his pace, careful to make sure he hit that same node over and over.

"Star...oh Star...I…" He started to falter a bit, his pace more erratic than before. Deciding it was my turn to pay him back, I stroked his audio horns which sent him over. I watched his eyes turn white for a split second as he overloaded, filling me with his tranfluids. This caused me to overload for a second time, nearly crashing from the experience.

Bee recovered after a couple minutes, humming softly as I stroked the back of his helm. Both our panels had closed while we recovered, which meant Bee wasn't buried inside me anymore. I missed the feeling of being full.

"I love you, Bee." I gained his attention, pulling him from his light recharge.

"I love you too, Star." I felt him move again, shifting us back to how we were originally, with my helm back against his chassis. We stayed like this the rest of the night, falling asleep in each others arms. Before I shut down completely, a warning flashed across my HUD. I choose to ignore it, deciding to deal with it in the morning. All I wanted right now was to recharge in the warmth of Bee's arms.  
\------------------------------------------------  
AUTO REBOOT: SYSTEMS ONLINE  
MEMORY ERROR 404: NOT FOUND  
REINSTALL  
I awoke to the message, not remembering where I was or why the message was flashing in my HUD. I opened my optics, not wanting to move right now. There was a huge monitor playing a movie of some kind on silent; a black and white image of a giant, eight legged creature crawled over a city as organic life forms ran for it.. Odd,what is this? I quickly diverted my attention to who I was on when they made a noise. Wait...who is this? I leaned over them a bit, trying to figure out why I was laying on them. Unfortunately this alerted the mech that I was awake, waking him up.  
"Star? What are you doing?" How does he know who I am? "You ok?" That color...I know you, but... I felt something spark in my processor, causing me to glitch out. I heard the mech shout as I crashed, blacking out completely.  
\------------------------------------------  
Bumblebee's View:

Starlit's glitch had apparently gotten worse since Prowl died. I knew that look, the one she got right before passing out, but this time her optics didn't come back on. They stayed grey.  
"Starlit?!" I tried to wake her, but she just fell limply back into my arms.  
\----------------------------------------------  
I rushed her to Ratchet, who said a crack had developed in her memory core, causing it to heat up. He was able to redirect something in her processor to save her from a complete meltdown, but the damage was already done. The color of my armor apparently caused something, making her to crash. That meant now I couldn't be around her, maybe even never again. Why she didn't tell me before?   
Jazz had even tried his Processor Over Matter thing with her but couldn't get through to her. It was like she was gone...we tried for a few days but she never improved. The pain of losing her without losing her was too much for me, I wasn't sure how long I could take being apart from her. I had convinced Jazz that I could help, who then convinced Ratchet to calm the frag down and let me try.  
However everytime I did get to see her, I had to wear a halo projector to change my color to a light blue, but, like I told Ratchet, she didn't recognize me. She remembered my name at least, though I think it was because Ratchet had repeated it over and over, but she didn't remember who I was. I blamed it on having to change my armor color.  
Thankfully she remembered Jazz, but so far no one else seemed to stick in her mind. She was convinced Jazz was her adoptive Creator, no matter what we told her. He was more of her brother, but he went with it for now. At least she could remember someone, even if it wasn't quite right.  
\---------------------------------------------  
It had been at least an Earth week since it all happened. She was in her bunker now, caring for her flowers. She had a fascination with them and they kept her happy. Ratchet allowed her plants from Earth to be brought in after Jazz had asked what else to try. We were unsure if they'd survive, but hopeful they would help her memory.  
Little did anyone know, I had been sneaking a new plant or two into her bunker every night. It wasn't easy, but Sari did help me a few times, traveling back and forth to Earth in secret. Star never knew I was there, since I snuck in while she slept, but she was so happy the next day. She had at least new ones ten now, the latest was a pink one, a daisy I think. I stayed this time to see her reaction, hiding outside the tiny window near her door, to quietly watch as she watered them all. I was suddenly jerked away and pulled down the hall by my arm.

"What the sla…" A white servo clamped over my mouth.  
"Chill Bee, it's me." Jazz turned me around. "What ar' ya doin' near Sta's place?"  
"You scared me…" I huffed, but answered him. "I...I just wanted to see her." I couldn't stand the fact that I couldn't see her everyday anymore. I couldn't stand that we had finally became more than friends and then...  
"Ar' ya the one leavin' the flowers?" Jazz crossed his arms, making me look at him again. I nodded and to my surprise he smiled. "Did you start doin' this a day afta she lost everythin'?" I thought about it for a second and shrugged.  
"I guess?"  
"An' have ya noticed anythin' else abou' her? Like da fact she's been humming a song I don't reconize?" I blinked in surprise.  
"She has? What song?"  
"Don' know. I can't figure it out, but maybe it's an Earth song I haven't heard yet. Maybe you can figure it out." Jazz smiled and walked away. "But don't let her catch ya."

I watched the cyber ninja walk away, silently accepting his challenge. I crept back down the hallway to her bunk and flattened myself against the wall near her door. I opened it just a crack to hear her, but not enough to let her know I was there. Sure enough, she was humming a song, I couldn't point it out at first, but it sounded slightly familiar...that's when it clicked; it was a lullaby. I'd heard it once back when I was first protoformed, it was played as all new lives were brought online, well to our batch at least. So she remembers her creator? I peeked in and saw she was caring for the orchard...er...whatever the flower Prowl gave her was. No...she remembers Prowl. So it wasn't that one Jazz was talking about.

After she was done with the purple flower, she moved to one of the ones I gave her, the one with tiny white flowers. She was humming softly still, but it was a different song. This one was an Earth song, one Sari and I showed her when she first came to Earth. I just couldn't name the song...She suddenly stopped, freezing her movements. I wasn't sure why but she turned to the door, looking right at me. Slag! I moved into a shadow as she came towards me and opened the door all the way.

"Hello?" She tilted her helm, wondering why I was at the door. From here, she couldn't see my armor, I didn't want her to glitch again. "Can I help you?"

"Er...no! Um...h-how are you?" My processor working hard to come up with an excuse.  
"Do you know what these things are? Why are they here?" So she didn't remember what flowers were now, huh?

"They're called flowers…"  
"Of course they are, but where are they coming from?" So she noticed… She then stepped aside, letting me inside.  
"Um…well…" I stepped into her room, weary of her crashing again, but she didn't. So now the theory of it being my armor was out the door. "I...brought you some. You know, to cheer you up." Her face was blank, but she wasn't glitching. Starlit was just taking it in, it just took her longer to understand things now. It broke my spark to see her spiraling like this.

"Thank you." She smiled, for the first time in a long time. "I like them."  
"Starlit," I wanted to ask if she remembered anything about us, but I couldn't do that to her. I sighed, deciding it best to let it go. "Do you really like them?" She gave me a look, like there was something she wanted to say too.

"You aren't here for flowers, are you?" At least she was still sharp.  
"Heh...no...I actually wanted to know, do you remember anything...about us?" I could feel my face turning red, having to look away. It just came out before I could stop it. She was confused, giving me a hard look like she was trying really hard to remember.

"Are we friends?" I felt my spark break, the reality hitting me hard. "I'm sorry...I...I'm trying but…" I must have a look on my face that told her it hurt because she then got a hurt look on her face.

"It's ok. It's...not your fault." I told her as she put a hand on my shoulder. "Do you remember why this happened?" I looked back to her, only her eyes were bright white.  
"Starlit?!" I grabbed her shoulders to keep her from falling, but she didn't fall forward, she just stared at me. I tried to get her to move, to get her to Ratchet but it was like she was frozen to that spot, trapping me here with her hand still on my shoulder. The grip she had on me was tighter than before. I was about to com someone, but her eyes went back to green before going to black as she crashed again. She finally let go, tipping forward into my chassis. I scooped her up, running to the med bay.  
\-------------------------------------  
Starlit's view:

I felt like I was floating, my body completely weightless, like I wasn't attached to it anymore. I looked at my hands only to see my body had become nothing more than a green, glowing outline. All that surrounded me was darkness, but I felt calm here, not at all concerned as to why I wasn't caporal anymore. A warmth surrounded me here, like a warm, safe and loving hug. I don't know how long I floated in the dark, but a small blue light was suddenly in the distance. I think I was floating to it, but I felt someone grab my hand. I turned around, seeing a mech outlined in a bright blue light.  
"It's not your time…" That voice…I turned to see a blue outline of my brother.  
"Prowl?" I felt my spark soar, my memories of him coming back to me. "Where...where am I?"  
"At the entrance to the Well of Allsparks. I'm here to stop you. You have to wake up." He told me, cupping my face. "Go back...you still have a lot to do." He smiled softly.  
"Prowl...I'm so lost...I can't." How was I supposed to go back when I had no idea which way to go or where I was.  
"You can, Starlit. I know you, you're stronger than you think. Focus, remember what I taught you." He put his forhelm against mine and a warm sensation spread through my processor. "I believe in you…" he said, his image fading away with the distant light. I felt a pull around my waist, like I was being dragged backwards into the darkness, towards a brighter white light. I shouted Prowl's name, but no sound came out.  
\-----------------------------------------  
Slowly, I came to. At first their voices were muffled, but soon I could make out Jazz's voice. It sounded like he was pleading to someone.  
"Come on sweetspark...don't leave me just yet…" He was talking to me. Then my sense of touch came back; I could feel his hand holding mine.  
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it...I shouldn't have…" It was Bee, he was crying but he wasn't near me. He must be by the door.  
Movement was hard, it felt like I'd been in stasis for a long time, but I was able to move my hand and squeeze Jazz's. This caused him to shout to Ratchet, who forced open my optic to scan me. At least I can still see.  
"She's back…" the old medic sounded surprised.  
"W-what?" Bee was shocked.  
"How can that be?" I recognized that voice...Prime? I remember him! If only I could wake up all the way.  
"Some sort of fragging miracle...she had no conscious thought just a few clicks ago, and yet here she is." He sounded angry, but I knew the medic was over the moon with joy. I was too, I had no idea I was going offline...  
"Can she hear us?" Jazz asked. I'm guessing someone said yes, cause he spoke to me. "You nearly gave me a spark attack...don't scare me like that." I felt him press his helm against mine.  
\--------------------------------------------  
I opened my optics a few solar cycles later. Ratchet had knocked me out with a hard line of code so I could heal more, giving my body time to reconnect properly to my processor. I overheard him saying he had to shut me down completely to stop my processor from completely melting, but had thought the damage was too far to fix.

My memory core was now reconnected to my processor via a melted copper wire. This wire somehow acted as a conduit, forcing a complete reboot of my systems. I guess it somehow corrected the crack in my memory core and rebooted everything in my processor. It wasn't a complete fix, but it was back to what it was before Prowl died. I only knew this because I had searched my files after I woke up. The last week though was a complete blank.  
When Ratchet knocked me out, he allowed the fusion to complete rather than fry itself. However, my processor had to re-figure out how it worked, seeing as it was basically rewired. I was offline for a short time because of it, but not long enough to extinguish my spark.

"You're awake." Ratchet pulled me from sorting files as he came into the room. "I leave for one click and you finally decide to wake up?" He smirked. I tried to say something, but my voice was static. "Hold on kid, you're not all healed yet." He sat by me, telling me he had to manually reconnect things by using codes used from protoforms. "You're lucky to still be here...I thought we lost you back there." He said, reconnecting my vocalizer.

"W-what happened?" It was static filled, but my voice worked.

"Now, don't talk." He warned. "I'm not done yet. You and Bee were talking and suddenly yer optics went white, I guess. Bee ran you here, you were out cold and your optics were burnt out. I knew your processor was melting down, so...I disconnected the signals to you body to help cool it down. It allowed me to reset you, but nothing came back on right. You were what humans call brain dead. After a few mega cycles, I wasn't sure if you were gonna wake up, I almost gave up...and then you woke up." He scanned me, getting back semi normal readings.

"Ya got lots of flowers in that time…" I looked over to see Jazz had come in. It took me a second to understand what he meant, but to my left was at least twenty plants. Mostly flowers of all different colors and types with a few flowers in vases as well. I would bet Sari got the vases of flowers and Bee got the potted plants.  
"Bee?" I asked, getting a glare from Ratchet.

"He thought they would help ya come back ta us." Jazz sat by my feet. "I told him one was enough…"  
"I told him to get them the frag out of my med bay…" the grumpy medic mumbled.  
"I think they give da place some life, dig. " Jazz teased him.  
"I pride myself on never having smacked a bot who is carrying...don't make me break that streak." Jazz shook his head, still smiling.  
"How you feeling, Sta'?" The black and white bot looked back to me, putting a hand on my leg. "You got feeling back yet?" He was checking to see if I could feel my legs. I smiled, moving my foot for him, not wanting Ratchet to hit me if I spoke. "Solid." He grinned.  
"She still can't walk, so don't even try." The medibot shouted from his monitor.  
"I know, I just wanna make sure she's a'ight." He was just worried, similar to how Prowl was. He just wasn't frantic like my brother had been. "How about your head? Anythin' feel off?" Both of them wanted to know that. I sighed, unsure of how to answer without talking.  
"Will you leave her be?" For once Ratchet had a point.  
"Sorry, sorry…" Looking closer, Jazz's visor was a little dim, like he wasn't sleeping well.  
"You need to rest up too, kid." Ratchet was talking to Jazz. "It's not good on you or for the sparkling. Now get out and go rest."  
\------------------------------------------  
Ratchet had reconnected everything, but my movement was very slow still. The medic wasn't too worried, but if it didn't improve soon he'd have to reboot me again. There was a huge risk in that causing a complete disconnect again, so I was adimate about trying a bit harder. That just caused the movements to become jerky, which forced Ratchet to go through all of the files connecting to my arms. This meant the computer read out all of my thoughts and I had to try to not think.  
"Alright, move your right hand again." Ratchet told me, looking at the reading on the tablet he held. This was getting tedious, boring me nearly to death. Of course the computer read out what I was trying to do behind his back.  
RIGHT ARM: ONLINE  
HAND: ERROR CODE. ALL DIGITS LOCKED: NO INDIVIDUAL MOVEMENT  
GESTURE UNKNOWN: 1,2,4,5 DOWN 3 UP ERROR  
"Alright you smart aft...try that one more time…" Ratchet was not amused that I tried to flip him off. He did something, unlocking their joined movements in a nano click. "Now the left...don't even think about it!" The error had come up but the readout stopped when I did. What was he going to do, I already couldn't walk. "Good...that's up. Now, your legs." This is where everything went weird.  
RIGHT STABILIZER: ERROR. ACT LEFT  
LEFT STABILIZER: ERROR. ACT RIGHT  
"The slag?" Ratchet tried again but got the same thing.  
"What's that mean?" I asked, my words also appearing on the screen.  
"Your right stabilizer is reading as your left an' so on…" He scanned my legs and up to my processor. "It's like a wire is crossed, but there isn't a one out of place. I know because I did the work…" He was talking to himself.  
"I'm not getting an error about that. Just an error that movement is restricted." I told him, going over the connections again. "I can move them." I showed him by moving my ankle joints.  
ERROR: STABILIZERS INACTIVE  
WARNING: MOVEMENT RESTRICTED  
"Hm...this is going to sound weird, but try moving your left stabilizer while focusing on your right." I just gave him a look like he'd lost it, but gave it a shot. It wasn't easy to do, but I was soon able to move my entire leg.  
LEFT STABILIZER: ONLINE  
ERROR: LEFT ACT RIGHT  
"Slag...the signal is crossed." Was all he said as he hit another button, causing my body to feel heavy. "Sorry kid, gotta go in again and fix that…"  
"W-wait!" Too late, I was out before I could finish.  
\-------------------------------------  
Bee was hovering over me, jumping back when I opened my optics.  
"Er...hey! Just checking on you…" He was acting weird.  
"I think I'm ok." I wasn't getting any error about shifting around to sit up. "Are you ok?"  
"Yeah...I'm sorry. I'm the one that made you crash, I did this." He took my hand as he looked into my optics. "I mean...the color of the armor did, but it's part of me so…" I put a finger up to his lips, making him stop.  
"What are you talking about?" I remember watering flowers, a flash of yellow and then nothing. Now that I thought hard enough on it, he actually just caused a reboot from me remembering him. "You mean the whole passing out thing? No, actually, I don't think you caused anything bad. I remembered you." He stared at me for a second in confusion.  
"Wait…" It was a strange thing that happened, but if it hadn't I might have been stuck in the state I was in. "I fixed it?"  
"Kind of? I'm still figuring it out too." The only thing I had to go on was that brief time before I crashed. "You didn't hurt me though."  
"So...you remember everything again?" He looked hopeful again.  
"Did I forget things?" He laughed, putting his helm against mine.  
"Nothing important." He teased me, knowing I knew I'd forgotten even him at one point. "But...do you remember what caused the first crash?" I blushed, knowing what he meant.  
"Oh...actually, no. I remember...erm...well…" He looked confused. "I remember you and I fragging, yes." That made him sputter and he nearly fell off the berth.  
"R-right! Um...did that cause it?"  
"No, it wasn't that. I think...I caused it. Before we fell into recharge, I got a warning but it didn't seem urgent. Now...I wish I had read it." I just didn't want to at the time. "I knew…I knew that I was going to crash. I'm sorry for not telling you, I just…" I felt my optics tear up, not wanting to admit I'd been selfish. I felt him cup my face, making me look back up to him.  
"It's alright. You're still here." He kissed me under my left optic, where a tear had just run free. "But Star, if anything like this happens again, I do want to know. I get that you were trying to protect me, but when I thought you were gone…" He was crying now too. "I wasn't sure what to do with myself…" It hit me that he had thought he had done this, that he had nearly taken me offline.

"It was never your fault. It wasn't you that caused any of it…" I regretted not telling him and letting him think he did this to me this whole time. The unintended guilt I put on him. "I never meant to hurt you...you're right, I thought not telling you was better, but I was wrong." I pressed our helms together. "I promise...no more secrets."


End file.
